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text(s) for "Relativity for Poets" course?
I teach physics at a community college in California, and I've initiated the process of creating a new gen ed course titled "Relativity for Poets." The math prerequisites will be algebra and geometry. There will be no lab. The hope is that we can get it approved so that it will satisfy a gen ed physical science requirement in the UC and/or Cal State systems. (If that doesn't happen, it won't be viable.) Similar courses seem to be offered at places like UC Riverside and Cornell.
The catalog description: "This course is intended for non-science students seeking general education credit in a physical science course without a laboratory. It presents Einstein's bizarre universe, from black holes to the Big Bang. Relativity's role in everyday life is discussed, including GPS and the magnet stuck to your fridge. The emphasis is on concepts rather than manipulating equations."
I've been looking around for appropriate books, and these are the best candidates I've found so far:
Will, Was Einstein right?
Geroch, General Relativity from A to B
Coles, Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction
Mermin, It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity
These are all very inexpensive paperbacks, by authors who are experts in the field, aimed at about the right level. The combination of the four of them seems like it would basically cover what I want to cover.
Does anyone have any other suggestions I should look at?
For SR, I like Taylor and Wheeler's Spacetime Physics, but it's not at the right level for gen ed students.
I love Gardner's Relativity Simply Explained, but it's out of date. Even if I were willing to work around the fact that it's out of date, I wouldn't be allowed to.
Although Mermin and Geroch are the best candidates I've found so far for SR and GR, I don't think they would work well with community college students. Neither assumes math skills that are higher than the prereqs for this course, but both are basically wall-to-wall mathematics. Neither has what I would consider an acceptable amount of discussion of experiments and applications (although the Will book would make up to this for some extent for GR). Both are very dry, about as entertaining as reading Euclid's Elements.
What I like about Mermin is that he takes a modern approach of regarding SR as a theory of spacetime, rather than using the hoary 1905 Einstein postulates.
-Ben
I teach physics at a community college in California, and I've initiated the process of creating a new gen ed course titled "Relativity for Poets." The math prerequisites will be algebra and geometry. There will be no lab. The hope is that we can get it approved so that it will satisfy a gen ed physical science requirement in the UC and/or Cal State systems. (If that doesn't happen, it won't be viable.) Similar courses seem to be offered at places like UC Riverside and Cornell.
The catalog description: "This course is intended for non-science students seeking general education credit in a physical science course without a laboratory. It presents Einstein's bizarre universe, from black holes to the Big Bang. Relativity's role in everyday life is discussed, including GPS and the magnet stuck to your fridge. The emphasis is on concepts rather than manipulating equations."
I've been looking around for appropriate books, and these are the best candidates I've found so far:
Will, Was Einstein right?
Geroch, General Relativity from A to B
Coles, Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction
Mermin, It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity
These are all very inexpensive paperbacks, by authors who are experts in the field, aimed at about the right level. The combination of the four of them seems like it would basically cover what I want to cover.
Does anyone have any other suggestions I should look at?
For SR, I like Taylor and Wheeler's Spacetime Physics, but it's not at the right level for gen ed students.
I love Gardner's Relativity Simply Explained, but it's out of date. Even if I were willing to work around the fact that it's out of date, I wouldn't be allowed to.
Although Mermin and Geroch are the best candidates I've found so far for SR and GR, I don't think they would work well with community college students. Neither assumes math skills that are higher than the prereqs for this course, but both are basically wall-to-wall mathematics. Neither has what I would consider an acceptable amount of discussion of experiments and applications (although the Will book would make up to this for some extent for GR). Both are very dry, about as entertaining as reading Euclid's Elements.
What I like about Mermin is that he takes a modern approach of regarding SR as a theory of spacetime, rather than using the hoary 1905 Einstein postulates.
-Ben