Special Relativity for Beginners: A Textbook for Undergraduates (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9789812771599)

This book, first appearing in German in 2004 under the title Spezielle Relativitätstheorie für Studienanfänger, offers access to the special theory of relativity for readers with a background in mathematics and physics comparable to a high school honors degree. All mathematical and physical competence required beyond that level is gradually developed through the book, as more advanced topics are introduced. The full tensor formalism, however, is dispensed with as it would only be a burden for the problems to be dealt with. Eventually, a substantial and comprehensive treatise on special relativity emerges which, with its gray-shaded formulary, is an invaluable reference manual for students and scientists alike.Some crucial results are derived more than once with different approaches: the Lorentz transformation in one spatial direction three times, the Doppler formula four times, the Lorentz transformation in two directions twice; also twice the unification of electric and magnetic forces, the velocity addition formula, as well as the aberration formula. Beginners will be grateful to find several routes to the goal; moreover, for a theory like relativity, it is of fundamental importance to demonstrate that it is self-contained and without contradictions.Author's website: www.relativity.ch.

Author: Jurgen Freund
ISBN-10: 981277159X
ISBN-13: 9789812771599
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
Language: English
Published: 04/01/2008
Pages: 332
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 8.99h x 6.36w x 0.92d