Physics 495
A List from which to select Readings
for
Special Relativity,
Fall, 2001
- Introductory books, at the freshman or sophomore level
- "Spacetime Physics," by Edwin Taylor and John Archibald Wheeler,
published by W.H. Freeman and Company (1992). This is surely the
best introduction to the underlying thought patterns that one should
develop to understand special relativity. It is at the mathematical
level of a very good senior in high school, but the philosophy and
problems given are excellent. Everyone should own and read it!
I will request that the bookstore order some.
- "The Meaning of Relativity," by Albert Einstein. A particularly
beautiful little book, profitably read by anyone with an interest in
the subject, independent of a background in physics or not.
- "Special Relativity," by French, published by Norton. One of the
best of the "freshman textbook" line. It covers the material in a
very straightforward way, working carefully through the experimental
underpinning of the subject. Surely not the best philosophical
development and background, but the formulae are there, the questions
are there, and the answers are correct.
Again, I will see if the bookstore can order some.
- "Introduction to Special Relativity," by Resnick, published by Wiley.
A very similar book to French's book, above; not quite as good in my
own opinion.
- At the advanced undergraduate to perhaps graduate level, where
our course intends to operate:
-
"Introduction to Special Relativity," 2nd Ed., by Wolfgang Rindler,
published by Oxford.
We will treat this one as a text, in the sense that I will assign
readings and take problems from it.
-
"Flat and Curved Space-Times," by George Ellis and Ruth Williams, published by
Oxford.
Although it uses mathematics, this is a book truly dedicated to
having the reader understand 4-dimensional spacetime, and how it is
different from our usual intuition.
This is the last one, that I will see if the bookstore will order some
as optional reading.
- "Special relativity," by W.G. Dixon, published by Cambridge.
Quite good on (relativistic) fluid dynamics and thermodynamics.
- "The Special Theory of Relativity," by J. Aharoni.
Good with Maxwell's theory and relativistic particle dynamics.
-
"Essential Relativity," by Wolfgang Rindler, 2nd Edition, published by
....
This is quite an excellent book, with very well thought out
philosophical discussions. The mathematics is good, although not always
given in as much detail as one might want. Unfortunately, or
fortunately, about
half the book is concerned with general relativity.
- Advanced, or classic, works on the subject:
-
"Theory of Relativity," by Wolfgang Pauli. This is a classic from 1921.
Its language is not fully modern, and it is rather terse; nonetheless,
it contains a great deal of insight.
- "Relativity: The Special Theory," by J.L. Synge
- "Gravitation," by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler, published by W.H.
Freeman.
The first 9 chapters consider special relativity from their point of view.
- Specialized Books on particular topics:
- Kinematics:
-
"Relativistic Kinematics," by Hagedorn.
At least at one time this
was the very best reference on this topic; it may well still be.
Among other things, it considers differential cross-sections, phase-space,
and the precession
of the polarization of the spin vector, all from the relativistic
point of view.
- "Relativistic Kinematics," by Arzelies.
Somewhat controversial, but with very interesting problems discussed.
- Electromagnetism
- "Classical Electromagnetism via Relativity," by W.G.V. Rosser.
Begins with the electric and magnetic fields of a point charge, and
derives the remainder of Maxwell's equations from the point of view of
special relativity.
- "Electrodynamics and Classical Theory of Fields and Particles," by
A.O. Barut.
A graduate-level text on electrodynamics, but with very good incorporation
of relativity into the subject, and discussions of relativistic interpretations
of dipoles as well as action-at-a-distance electrodynamics.
- Mathematical Methods for General Coordinates and variable dimensions:
-
"Differential Forms," by Harvey Flanders, re-published by Dover.
This is an excellent, if rather old and lengthy, introduction to the
use of differential forms to properly study physics problems.
- "Applied differential geometry," by Burke
- "Geometrical methods of mathematical physics," by Schutz, published by
Cambridge. A well-written introduction for the purposes he states. It
is definitely written for and by a physicist. His chapters 2,4, and 5
are especially good and easy reading.
- "Methods of Matrix Algebra," by Pease. This is only marginally related
to our subject matter; however, I will spend a lot of time worrying
with matrices, and this is certainly the best book I know that starts
at the beginning and comes close to the end. Written by an electrical
engineer.
- Spinors as complex 2-dimensional vectors to describe spacetime:
- "Spinors and Spacetime," by Penrose and Rindler. An excellent (2-volume)
work on the subject; the definitive one, but very lengthy and also
devoted to its own cause.
-
"The Theory of Spinors," by E. Cartan (Dover). Surely not the easiest
book on spinors; however, the author invented them, and it has
considerable insight.
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Last updated/modified:
30 April, 2001