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Relativity Demystified | 
 enlarge | Authors: David Mcmahon, Paul M. Alsing
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $7.95
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 71301
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 344
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.3 x 1
ISBN: 0071455450
Dewey Decimal Number: 530.11
EAN: 9780071455459
ASIN: 0071455450
Publication Date: December 2, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW CRISP AND CLEAN COPY. There is a black line on the edge.
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Product Description
This book helps readers learn relativity at the speed of light! Now anyone can grasp Einstein's great theory of relativity - without formal training, unlimited time, or a genius IQ. In "Relativity Demystified", theoretical physicists (and student-savvy authors) David McMahon and Paul Ansing provide an effective, illuminating, and entertaining way to learn the essentials and formulas of Einstein's theories. With "Relativity Demystified", you master the subject one step at a time - at your own speed. This unique self-teaching guide offers problems at the end of each chapter and part to pinpoint weaknesses, and a 100-question final exam to reinforce the entire book.This fast and entertaining self-teaching course makes it much easier to: master theoretical physics at your own pace; learn the formulas and principles of special and general relativity from hundreds of worked examples; use practical mathematical tools for solving relativity problems; receive layperson's explanations for Schwarzhild spacetimes, black holes, gravitational radiation, and actual current research; perform better in one of the scariest courses of all; and, take a final exam and grade it yourself!Simple enough for beginners but challenging enough for those who already know something about relativity, "Relativity Demystified" is the best self-teaching tool or brush-up you can find!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Mathematically daunting! April 20, 2008
kclam (Hong Kong, China)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is mathematically daunting. It covers the essentials and formulas of Einstein's theories through hundreds of worked (mathematical) examples. Unlike other books of the Demystified Series, I reckon this one not entertaining at all. It is absolutely not for beginners!
 At the speed of light December 14, 2007
R. Stephen Wright (Perrysburg, Oh)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Learn Relativity at the Speed of Light" is found on the back cover of this book and I think it's true. It was aproximately 1.23 light years ago when I first purchased this book and I am now on page 208(out of 328 total). My point is that the book is very good but to get through it requires a lot of work; relative to the math and physics background that you possess. I was totally stumped on pages 2 and 3 (Maxwells current-magnetic field equation). It will help to supplement this study with a book on tensor calculus and another relativity book by Hartle or Schutz. The worked examples and chapter quizes were great though and worth the effort.
A Bumpy Ride but Well Worth the Effort September 2, 2007
Herbert L Calhoun (Falls Church, VA USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
While this is not exactly the "learning of relativity at the speed of light" the book advertises, unlike many others of the Demystified series, this volume does indeed have its high points. br / br /The lead up to Einstein's Field Equations -- although the notational gymnastics and some of the mathematics was daunting -- is nevertheless first class. It gives the reader a very much-needed window into the role the Linear Algebra notion of mathematical mappings and transformations -- especially as viewed from the point of view of "basis vectors," through "one forms," and on to "partial derivatives of Tensor Calculus" -- play in bootstrapping one's way up from the local Newtonian/Euclidian frame of reference to the more generalized space-time Reimann/Malinowsky frame. And most importantly, it shows by carefully selected examples and exercises how tensor calculus takes over from Linear Algebra in moving from the more local Newtonian/Euclidian frame to the more generalized space-time frame. br / br /In fact, reading between the lines of the book, one could argue that the whole of understanding the mechanics of relativity is grasping fully this single concept: of how to move mathematically from reference frame to reference frame -- that is, from inertial frames moving relative to one another in the Euclidian world to doing the same in the Space-time world. br / br /Doing this is not easy either conceptually or mathematically but is a necessity for getting from Newtonian to Einsteinian physics. If the reader learns to appreciate that the heavy-duty mathematics is required only for this task, and only in this light, then the ride will be infinitely easier. br / br /Even in Taylor and Wheeler's very down to earth treatment of relativity (in their "Spacetime Physics"), this kind of understanding is left in the background for the reader to infer and to ferret out on his own. A great deal of time is save in the earlier chapters of this volume by forcing the reader to understand early on why working ones way gradually up the ladder to the tensor Calculus is necessary: so that he is better able do all of the mathematical heavy-lifting seamlessly, later. br / br /One word of caution to the reader, which also is my only serious criticism of the book: The written dialogue is painfully sparse, so every word must be read carefully, weighed and parsed for its full meaning. It is helpful to read the book three times: First as an overview to see where the author is headed; and then a second time to understand the mathematical content -- especially the dizzy array of notations -- and then finally to put all the pieces together. That is, read it a third time just to confirm that one understands fully how the larger concepts match up with the corresponding mathematics. br / br /It seems much easier for the authors of physics and mathematical texts to roll out reams of equations than to give just the minimal explanations about how these equations relate to the underlying concepts they are supposed to explain and describe. Why leave such important connections to the reader? br / br /Realizing that this is not a book of prose, still it would be helpful sometimes to give ample and clearly written explanations, with even (god forbid), a little repetition from time to time, just as a guide so that the reader can confirm that he is making the correct interpretations along the way. br / br /Anyway, I am hooked on the Demystified Series and hope this book will be great preparation for the upcoming Demystified volume on String Theory. br / br /Four Stars
Good coverage of topics but not for first time study -- Need better editing work before release August 12, 2007
Paul Quantum
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book covered a lot of the practical topics in GR. The writing is quite easy to understand. In some places, it seems to be too short. For example, the explanation of the basis in coordinate basis is not very clear. [Just refer to Carroll] However, be careful if you are the first time study in GR. You should get one of the other standard books, like Schutz, Weinberg, MTW(Misner, Thorne, Wheeler) otherwise, you will not be able to move too far in this area. Also, I really hope the editor/author can do a bit more thorough job in proof reading before releasing the book. There are many places where you could find sign errors or the indices placement are not correct. For example, the definition of Christoffel Sympbol in terms of metric and also the definition of symmetrization and also the -ve sign in the proper time definition....If you already know about the subject matter, this is not a bad reference book, just a bit tiring in keeping track of these minor errors.
Good Series, But This Book Is Questionable June 14, 2007
Steve
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I've purchased a whole book shelf of the Demystified series, though I've only just started using them. As a former physics undergrad, these books at least *appear* to offer a level of treatment that I can handle as I wade back into the subject. The one I've been using the most is Differential Equations Demystified, and I've found that very helpful so far. br / br /*This* book, however -- General Relativity Demystified -- proved somewhat of a disappointment. Basically, before you can get into the physics, you have to get some handle on the mathematics of Tensors, which is covered in the early chapters, but I simply found the treatment opaque. I'm planning to get some other books on Tensors and study them carefully. Then I plan to return to this book, and see if the later parts of the book -- which deal with the physics -- prove to be accessible, once I have the tensor math down. br / br /Possibly, if the author rewrote the early part of the book to clarify the tensor discussion, he might still have a hit here. As I say, though, other books in the series look pretty good, and I'm very happy with the DfEQ Demystified book, which I've really been working my way through and learning something in the process. br /
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