Visualizing Relativity

Book review, Title Relativity: A Graphic Guide, Author Bruce Bassett, Rating 3.0,

Relativity: A Graphic Guide Bruce Bassett Book review

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This book summarizes Einstein's special and general theory of relativity using cartoon drawings to illustrate every concept. It does not shy away from physical formulae, neither does it provide in depth discussion of same.

My own physics background included the special theory of relativity, and so the explanations were familiar ones, and just OK. I never attempted the general theory, as the mathematics and the physics were too daunting, but was familiar with the consequences, history and major tests of the general theory, which this book covered.

Overall, the subject is simply too dense for anyone not on the proper physical and mathematical footing, but the book does a decent job of explaining some of the concepts of Riemannian geometry, the curvature of space, the important observations, basic conondrums and current models of modern astrophysics, the successful applications of the general theory in addressing some of those, and where the general theory either falls short or is as yet untestable.

It is OK as a 50,000 foot view of, for a non-physicist, an otherwise unapproachable subject.