Open-Source Book on Special Relativity - Free Download

bcrowell
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Insights Author
Messages
6,723
Reaction score
431
I've written an open-source book on special relativity: http://www.lightandmatter.com/sr/ . It's a work in progress, but at this point it's fairly complete in its coverage of topics, and I would welcome feedback. "Open-source" means that the LaTeX source code is available, and it's under the same license as Wikipedia.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
@bcrowell: Let me be the first to thank you for your hard work and generosity in making this book available to all of us. On occasions when I have referred to it, I have always found it technically competent and nicely illustrated. Nice work! :thumbs:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
yuiop said:
@bcrowell: Let me be the first to thank you for your hard work and generosity in making this book available to all of us. On occasions when I have referred to it, I have always found it technically competent and nicely illustrated. Nice work! :thumbs:

Thanks! :-) But maybe you're thinking of the GR book...? The SR book is new.
 
Thread 'Can this experiment break Lorentz symmetry?'
1. The Big Idea: According to Einstein’s relativity, all motion is relative. You can’t tell if you’re moving at a constant velocity without looking outside. But what if there is a universal “rest frame” (like the old idea of the “ether”)? This experiment tries to find out by looking for tiny, directional differences in how objects move inside a sealed box. 2. How It Works: The Two-Stage Process Imagine a perfectly isolated spacecraft (our lab) moving through space at some unknown speed V...
Does the speed of light change in a gravitational field depending on whether the direction of travel is parallel to the field, or perpendicular to the field? And is it the same in both directions at each orientation? This question could be answered experimentally to some degree of accuracy. Experiment design: Place two identical clocks A and B on the circumference of a wheel at opposite ends of the diameter of length L. The wheel is positioned upright, i.e., perpendicular to the ground...
According to the General Theory of Relativity, time does not pass on a black hole, which means that processes they don't work either. As the object becomes heavier, the speed of matter falling on it for an observer on Earth will first increase, and then slow down, due to the effect of time dilation. And then it will stop altogether. As a result, we will not get a black hole, since the critical mass will not be reached. Although the object will continue to attract matter, it will not be a...
Back
Top