The Special Theory of Relativity by David Bohm, 0415404258, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Clarity from a master.

This masterly account of special relativity is superior to most in explaining just what makes the theory different. Other theories had, after all, already come up with exactly the same equations relating to measuring rods and clocks on the move. But readers are not left to wonder why Einstein gets all the credit for some transforms that Lorentz had previously proposed; Bohm shows the workings from two very different starting points. Lorentz was looking for a kludge to explain why we can't use light beams to measure our speed relative to a stationary ether; Einstein ruled out any such stationary frame of reference from the start - ether or no ether - and saw that all physical laws should remain invariant for all (unaccelerated) observers.

It is explained that Lorentz's equations did the trick, but his theory was otherwise unverifiable. We see how Einstein's theory could have predicted that Michelson and Morley would get the shocking results that they did and saved everyone, including Lorentz, the trouble of cooking up excuses. Einstein's is an eminently falsifiable theory - still awaiting falsification because all its predictions have invariably come out spot on.

The book employs the usual scenarios of people on trains and stations with lanterns and stopwatches, but we then go on to a deeper exploration using Minkowski diagrams and the K calculus to make things clearer - surprisingly clear it all becomes, too. Even the "twins" paradox makes more sense from this standpoint.

There is a long final chapter which considers our appreciation (or lack of it) of anything but Galilean relativity by virtue of normal development of our senses. I didn't take as much from this as from the bulk of the book. There is a short chapter on how theories come to be falsified as progress is made. It makes reference to Sir Karl Popper's philosophical work but seems to miss the point about falsifiability in the very first sentence. (The author would have been working from an earlier account of this work which was perhaps presented differently at that time.)

The one truly bad aspect of this publication is the atrocious number of misprints - unforgivable given the number of earlier editions. Symbols transmute: from u to v, from + to -, from subscript to index; numerators and denominators switch back and forth; figures are wrongly numbered, points on diagrams are labelled with letters differing from those in the text . . . It all ensures that you work through the equations properly and so get a thorough understanding. But it can be infuriating and unnecessarily tedious. That is why it gets only 4 stars.

If you still need some mental stimulus, try working out some of the missing steps which the author describes as: "with a little algebra we get". That can be rewarding and fun, and is a nice (typically professorial) touch.

Classic conceptual approach to relativity

Based upon a final year undergraduate course, this textbook is a conceptual approach to the special theory of relativity. Rather than present an excessively mathematical exposition, it presents the physical ideas involved in relativity.

The first 50 pages present Galileian relativity and it's conflict with Maxwell's electrodynamics, including the Michelson Morley experiment and the attempts to save space-time concepts with Lorentz theory. Then it goes on to show how Einstein was able to generalise these notions of space and time, and was able to dispense with Lorentz's ether.

The principle features of relativity are then expounded (addition of velocities, energy momentum transformations, equivalence of matter and energy) before the final section of the book analyses such issues as the twin "paradox", and causality.

The approach is focused upon the perceptual structure of relativity - that is, it provides a description of how we perceive the world, rather than a description of an absolute world of facts. A number of chapters, and in particular a long appendix, explore the idea of perception as the basis of physical theories in general.

This book examines relativity from a direction that complements and strenghtens the more mathematical 'textbook' treatment, to give an intuitive understanding of what relativity means, rather than simply 'how to do it'.

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