Introduction to Relativity: For Physicists and Astronomers / Edition 1

by John B. Kogut

Overview

Introduction to Relativity is intended to teach physics and astronomy majors at the freshman, sophomore or upper-division levels how to think about special and general relativity in a fundamental, but accessible, way. Designed to render any reader a "master of relativity", everything on the subject is comprehensible and derivable from first principles. The book emphasizes problem solving, contains abundant problem sets, and is conveniently organized to meet the needs of both student and instructor.

• Simplicity: the book teaches space and time in relativity in a physical fashion with minimal mathematics
• Conciseness: the book teaches relativity by emphasizing the basic simplicity of the principles at work
• Visualization: space-time diagrams (Minkowski) illustrate phenomena from simultaneity to the resolution of the twin paradox in a concrete fashion
• Worked problems: two chapters of challenging problems solved in several ways illustrate and teach the principles
• Problem sets: each chapter is accompanied by a full set of problems for the student that teach the principles and some new phenonmena

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780124175617
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	05/07/2001
Series:	Complementary Science
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Benjamin Kogut, PhD, is an American theoretical physicist, specializing in high energy physics. He has contributed to the quark-parton model, light-cone quantization, quark confinement, lattice gauge theory, Quantum Chromodynamics (the field theory of quarks and gluons) in extreme environments (high temperatures and densities), and supercomputer simulations as a tool for theoretical physics. For 27 years Dr. Kogut was on the physics faculty of the Loomis Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, retiring in 2005 as professor emeritus.

Table of Contents

Physics According to Newton - A World with No Speed Limit
Physics According to Einstein
Visualizing Relativity - Minowski Diagrams
Assorted Applications
Illustrations and Problems in Space-Time Measurements
Relativistic Dynamics
A Gentle Introduction to General Relativity
Illustrations, Problems, and Discussions in General Relativity