It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity (Princeton Science Library, 115) - Hardcover

Mermin, N. David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691122016 ISBN 13: 9780691122014

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2005

Synopsis

In It's About Time, N. David Mermin asserts that relativity ought to be an important part of everyone's education--after all, it is largely about time, a subject with which all are familiar. The book reveals that some of our most intuitive notions about time are shockingly wrong, and that the real nature of time discovered by Einstein can be rigorously explained without advanced mathematics. This readable exposition of the nature of time as addressed in Einstein's theory of relativity is accessible to anyone who remembers a little high school algebra and elementary plane geometry.


The book evolved as Mermin taught the subject to diverse groups of undergraduates at Cornell University, none of them science majors, over three and a half decades. Mermin's approach is imaginative, yet accurate and complete. Clear, lively, and informal, the book will appeal to intellectually curious readers of all kinds, including even professional physicists, who will be intrigued by its highly original approach.

About this title

About the Author

N. David Mermin is a theoretical physicist who has worked in solid state physics, low temperature physics, statistical physics, crystallography, and foundations of quantum mechanics. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and won the first Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical society for "his remarkable clarity and wit as a lecturer to nonspecialists on difficult subjects." His books include Solid State Physics, Boojums All the Way Through, and Space and Time in Special Relativity.

From the Back Cover

"David Mermin's new book is a gem. Requiring nothing more than a basic understanding of algebra, it provides the clearest and most insightful treatment of special relativity I've ever encountered. Students new to special relativity should learn it from this text; those already familiar with the subject should read this book to enhance their understanding and (of equal importance) to experience the craft of a master teacher."--Brian Greene, Columbia University

"This book includes material that is intellectually innovative and comes as a surprise even to specialists in the field. Its uniqueness, its insights, and its wonderful style will likely make it a classic."--Richard Price, University of Utah

"Well-written, chatty and engaging, this book will be accessible to scientists and non-scientists alike."--Robert Geroch, University of Chicago

"The reader who works through this book carefully will have quite a good understanding of what special relativity is all about. It offers a fresh approach to the subject."--Michael Strauss, Princeton University

From the Inside Flap

"David Mermin's new book is a gem. Requiring nothing more than a basic understanding of algebra, it provides the clearest and most insightful treatment of special relativity I've ever encountered. Students new to special relativity should learn it from this text; those already familiar with the subject should read this book to enhance their understanding and (of equal importance) to experience the craft of a master teacher."--Brian Greene, Columbia University

"This book includes material that is intellectually innovative and comes as a surprise even to specialists in the field. Its uniqueness, its insights, and its wonderful style will likely make it a classic."--Richard Price, University of Utah

"Well-written, chatty and engaging, this book will be accessible to scientists and non-scientists alike."--Robert Geroch, University of Chicago

"The reader who works through this book carefully will have quite a good understanding of what special relativity is all about. It offers a fresh approach to the subject."--Michael Strauss, Princeton University

Reviews

According to an old publishing saw, every equation included in a book decreases its sales. This one attempts to defy convention. The product of Mermin's career teaching the subject to nonscience majors, its audience will be readers who are aware that near the speed of light, dimensions shrink, time slows, and mass increases infinitely but who may not know why. Assuring them that only high school-level algebra and geometry are required, Mermin begins gently with verbal descriptions of a frame of reference. The equations debut with his discussion of moving frames of reference, which at the speeds of our everyday world are easy to digest. The difficult, counterintuitive part is grasping the implications for moving frames of the absolute constancy of the speed of light. Nobody did until Einstein's 1905 paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies." Mermin's dozens of diagrams illustrate the chain of reasoning that arrives at Einstein's startling discovery that mass is equivalent to energy. There's a profound difference between knowing about something, and knowing it, and Mermin succeeds at instilling the latter. Gilbert Taylor
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Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691122016
• ISBN 13: 9780691122014
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208