Was Einstein Right?: Putting General Relativity to the Test

By Clifford Will

Book Overview

How has the most celebrated scientific theory of our century held up under today's exacting scrutiny of planetary probes, radio astronomy, atomic clocks, and electronic super-computers? After eighty... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465090877
• ISBN13: 9780465090877
• Release Date: July 1988
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent

"Was Einstein Right" is the first book (out of 37 on relativity which I own) that I offer someone interested in learning about Einstein's theories. It is interesting, clear and to the point. I have re-bought this book three times, as my copies are lent out and don't always make it back! haha I don't blame them!

a saga of modern science

Everyone knows that Einstein revolutionized the theory of gravity. But only experiment can tell whether he got it right. Will recounts in clear and nontechnical language the story of how Einstein's theory was put to the test in earth- and satellite-based experiments from the 1950's to the 1980's. He describes how it is actually possible to see space curve by making very accurate measurements in the solar system, and he explains how those measurements were made by the Mariner probe to Mars, by radar surveying of the planets, and by bouncing laser beams off the moon. From these highlights to the three naked Stanford professors whose experiment is still waiting to go up in the Shuttle, Will sets out every aspect of this fascinating story