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This compact yet informative Guide presents an accessible route through Special Relativity, taking a modern axiomatic and geometrical approach. It begins by explaining key concepts and introducing Einstein's postulates. The consequences of the postulates – length contraction and time dilation – are unravelled qualitatively and then quantitatively. These strands are then tied together using the mathematical framework of the Lorentz transformation, before applying these ideas to kinematics and dynamics. This volume demonstrates the essential simplicity of the core ideas of…
Provides a 'start to finish' journey through Special Relativity, assisting students preparing for exams or helping strengthen the reader's understanding of core ideas and varied approaches
A complementary prelude to the author's A Student's Guide to General Relativity (ISBN 9781316634790), as well as other mainstream course texts, informed by the author's teaching
Offers a compact yet precise introduction to Special Relativity while pointing to the wide variety of routes into the subject and emphasising the multiplicity of resources available
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Author
Norman Gray,University of Glasgow
Norman Gray is in the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, where he has, over the last 20 years, taught courses covering both special and general relativity. Since his PhD in particle theory, he has had a varied research career, most recently concentrating on the interface between astronomy and computing. He is author of A Student's Guide to General Relativity (2019), which has been a successful addition to Cambridge University Press's growing series of Student's Guides.