Preface to English edition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
This book explains Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity (SR) using diagrams only. Readers who are used to thinking of physics as a vast labyrinth of equations may feel somewhat uneasy about this unconventional approach and fear that it risks losing important information about SR that can only be conveyed via equations. However, this fear is not only unfounded but actually reversed: it is the equations that fail to convey the essence of SR that diagrams can easily display right in front of your eyes. After all, SR, and also the General Theory of Relativity (GR), are about the geometry of the spacetime that we inhabit, and what can best describe geometry if not diagrams? Equations are simply inadequate, to wit, one diagram is worth a thousand equations.
So if you are a reader for whom equations are anathema, rest assured that you will get much more out of this book than any physics student will get out of a textbook full of equations. If you are a physics student, this book will provide you with a deep enough understanding of SR that will enable you to reproduce any equation you may need from scratch, if such a need ever arises, and also prepare you for GR as well.
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- Information
- An Illustrated Guide to Relativity , pp. viiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010