Relativity Prereq for Will: Theory and Experiment in Gravitational Phys

[Cygnus_A]

Hi, I'm wondering how much prior knowledge I would need to get a lot out of this book. I'm considering taking an undergraduate General Relativity course next semester to help me learn parts of this book. I have some basic experience with curvilinear coords/tensor analysis along with a brief understanding of GR and cosmology from a couple seminars I attended.

Has anyone read parts of this book? It seems to be an extremely important reference for modern research in GR. The preface states that it can be used as a graduate textbook, but I get the feeling that it couldn't be used as an introduction, even for a grad course.

Theory and Experiment in Gravitational Physics
Author: Clifford M. Will
Date Published: March 1993

links for more info:
adsabs harvard
google books
about author

Also, I'm wondering if anyone knows of other good books for an intro to the PPN formalism for gravity.

 

[WannabeNewton]

You definitely need to have taken a graduate sequence in GR in order to get anything out of Cliff Will's book. It's a brilliant book and I've used it as a reference for research a handful of times but it's definitely not a pedagogical text.

As for an introduction to PPN, I would recommend Poisson and Will.

 

[Cygnus_A]

Thanks! that's exactly what I was looking for