Learn Special & General Relativity Online Free

[bgq]

Hi,

Are there any free online reliable resources to learn SR and GR?

Thanks.

 

[harrylin]

Hi,

Are there any free online reliable resources to learn SR and GR?

Thanks.

Hi bqq, rather good starters are Einstein's summaries- even if some modern resources are easier.
An important advantage is that you won't have to unlearn misinformation about SR and GR. Thus :

- http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/
You can replace §3 by http://www.bartleby.com/173/11.html and http://www.bartleby.com/173/a1.html
- http://www.bartleby.com/173/
- http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Foundation_of_the_Generalised_Theory_of_Relativity
[EDIT:] See a not-so-subtle modification at the bottom of: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/TwinParadox/twin_gr.html - and note also that all the first-order effects can be derived without tensors but I don't know a web resource for that.

On SR there is also for example http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/michelson.html - very clear resource but regretfully with a few serious glitches.
[EDIT: see https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=4105964 + https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=641102&page=2]

 

[PAllen]

For GR on line, my favorite for learning from is:

http://preposterousuniverse.com/grnotes/

 

[bgq]

Thank you very much.

 

[PAllen]

Hi bqq, rather good starters are Einstein's summaries- even if some modern resources are easier.
An important advantage is that you won't have to unlearn misinformation about SR and GR. Thus :

- http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/
You can replace §3 by http://www.bartleby.com/173/11.html and http://www.bartleby.com/173/a1.html
- http://www.bartleby.com/173/
- http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Foundation_of_the_Generalised_Theory_of_Relativity
[EDIT:] See a not-so-subtle modification at the bottom of: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/TwinParadox/twin_gr.html - and note also that all the first-order effects can be derived without tensors but I don't know a web resource for that.

On SR there is also for example http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/michelson.html - very clear resource but regretfully with a few serious glitches.
[EDIT: see https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=4105964 + https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=641102&page=2]

Do you know an on line version of "The Meaning of Relatvity" by Einstein. Unlike all of your links, this was his most complete exposition of SR and GR for a professional audience (and also includes his final version of unified field theory). It is, in a real sense, Einstein's last word on all these matters:

- has updates past 1950 [by Einstein; latest revision less than 2 yrs. before his death.]
- full mathematical depth for the professional audience

I always prefer it over everything earlier/simplified, but I have never found an online version of it.

 

[pervect]

Do you know an on line version of "The Meaning of Relatvity" by Einstein. Unlike all of your links, this was his most complete exposition of SR and GR for a professional audience (and also includes his final version of unified field theory). It is, in a real sense, Einstein's last word on all these matters:

- has updates past 1950
- full mathematical depth for the professional audience

I always prefer it over everything earlier/simplified, but I have never found an online version of it.

I'm not terribly familiar with it, but Projet Guttenburg has it , apparently. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276

 

[PAllen]

[EDIT:] See a not-so-subtle modification at the bottom of: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/TwinParadox/twin_gr.html

Please note, this modification is only of the axiomatic basis and side philosophy. Note, for SR dozens of different axiomatic bases have been proposed, leading to the same result; for GR, MTW list 6 axiomatic bases of GR. The theory (equations + definition of observables) has not changed.

[Edit: Let me clarify that despite above quibble, I wholeheartedly agree with Harrylin's list of links as great way to get going.]

 

[PAllen]

I'm not terribly familiar with it, but Projet Guttenburg has it , apparently. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36276

Apparently not. That forms just the first part of the book periodically issued by Princeton whenever Einstein updated it. It doesn't have the two newer sections on cosmology; and the unified field theory. I suspect it doesn't have assorted corrections throughout the text.

 

[harrylin]

Do you know an on line version of "The Meaning of Relatvity" by Einstein. Unlike all of your links, this was his most complete exposition of SR and GR for a professional audience (and also includes his final version of unified field theory). It is, in a real sense, Einstein's last word on all these matters:

- has updates past 1950 [by Einstein; latest revision less than 2 yrs. before his death.]
- full mathematical depth for the professional audience

I always prefer it over everything earlier/simplified, but I have never found an online version of it.

Regretfully I don't know an online version including past 1950 updates; and there is an obvious reason why, even if I knew one, I could probably not (yet) post it here!