Relativity and Common Sense: A New Approach to Einstein

By Hermann Bondi and Herman Bondi

Book Overview

This radically reoriented and popular presentation of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity derives its concepts from Newtonian ideas rather than by opposing them. Sir Hermann Bondi explains the concepts of force, momentum, rotation, sound, and light and their relation to velocity. He then demonstrates that time is relative rather than absolute, that high speeds affect the nature of time, and that acceleration affects speed, time, and mass. Very little mathematics is required, and 60 illustrations augment the text.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486240215
• ISBN13: 9780486240213
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book for the right audience

Previous reviewers who rated this book less than four stars have simply misunderstood the purpose of this book. It uses a novel approach to present the special theory of relativity to an audience of non-physicists who are not afraid of a few - very few - equations, as in the proverbial "educated high school graduate." Hence Bondi uses numerical examples to avoid many equations. The book is not meant to be a college textbook or complete treatise on relativity! Bondi's approach makes relativity seem almost obvious. The earlier chapters, which some felt were irrelevant, are designed to contrast sound with light, which may be more familiar, or at least less surprising. There is a lot of physics in this book Some may be misled by a statement in John Durston's preface: "Professor Bondi derives Relativity from Newtonian ideas." One cannot derive relativity from Newtonian mechanics. But Newtonian concepts can be used to advantage. My only caveat is that there are several unfortunate typos, especially Eq. (20) on page 123.

An illustration of Special Theory of Relativity

This is one of the first books which use common sense approach to the understanding of special theory of relativity using illustrations, drawings and diagrams. At one time this theory was considered mysterious, which is in fact obvious and clear-cut extension of ordinary ideas to the realm of high velocities. The author first presents Newtonian ideas followed by the concept and characteristic effects of special relativity in a non mathematical language. Then he introduces Lorentz Transformation (LT) in chapter 10, which involves systems of coordinates moving relative to each other and then uses LT to establish the basics of the theory. Readers with very limited mathematical background should have no trouble in understanding the elementary aspects of the relativity. This is a cute little book (177 pages, size 7.92'' x 5.36"), which is classified into three parts. The first part introduces the classical mechanics; concepts of force, momentum, angular momentum, velocity of light and uniqueness of light. The second part deals with the peculiarities of high speeds, relationship of inertial (uniformly moving, constant velocity) and moving observers and the need for theory of relativity to understand high speed situation and a brief introduction to Lorentz Transformation. The final part discusses the consequences of traveling faster than light, acceleration (non-inertial motion) and high velocities on mass. Chapters 8 and 9 are crucial to the common sense approach to the understanding of relativity. The reader may need time and patience to read these two chapters to understand relativity. Chapter 11 discusses some interesting consequences of special relativity; for travels faster than light there is no link between cause and effect, in other words that effect could precede cause. This book is very affordable and useful; I encourage the reader to consider adding this book to his/her personal library.

a favorite of mine

For an introduction to special relativity from the K-calculus standpoint, this book has no peer. The K-calculus approach is, arguably, the soundest approach for conceptual clarity all the way to the composition of velocities and twin paradoxes. You won't feel you are being snowed by math tricks. In paperback, this book is high value for the money. Don't look for recent stuff like superluminal physics or details on relativity experiments.

Great book to understand relativity

Although this book doesn't dive deep into the equations for Einstein's Theory of Relativity, it is an *excellent* book to learn the ideas behind it. Relativity is a complex idea and this book will explain well to anybody who takes the time to read it and think about things.