This is the way it should be done
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This is or at least should be the model for all future undergrad textbooks on relativity.This book introduces the subject for what it is: an extension of our geometric understanding of the universe.The first part,on Special Relativity (SR) is quite simply the best introduction on the market,
showing the reader the basics of hyperbolic geometry and how the physics of SR follows from this.The introduction of tensors ,preparatory to General Relativity (GR),suffers from the usual incomprehensible lack of a brief discussion of general coordinate transformations.This seems to be a common feature of relativity textbooks which needs to be remedied.Some of the way that curved spaces are discussed and represented are not absolutely clear also.So this book gets 4 stars and not 5.But If you are a student doing SR and GR for the first time, then look no further than this great book,together with ,say,Borisenko and Tarapov's book on Vector/tensor Analysis.
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the best
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This is the best book on relativity for beginners. Period. I can say this because I have all the books on this topic (even read some of them ;-), and this is the one with the best combination and pace for a beginner. If you want to jump straight into general relativity, my favourite would be D'Inverno (Oxford Univ Press), then Schutz (the green book), but this one contains special and general and makes a good first step before jumping to the other books.
For an overview of gravitation, including history and applications, I suggest Schutz' recent "gravity from the gound up".
But coming back to Callahan, this is the one to start with if you are serious about going into the details. It is not a popular view of the subject, meaning it has "lots" of equations, but the style is pleasant for a physics book. Only gripe: no solutions to the exercises.
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