Product Description
The recent developments in canonical transforms, matrix theory, block Kronecker multiplications, and other areas are applied to extend and simplify results in the theory of first order systems and special relativity. Especially noteworthy are the author's results on Fourier transforms in dimensions lower than the surrounding space and his approach to the Doppler effect, which has never been published previously and supersedes previous work on this topic, which failed to solve the Doppler effect exactly. Some of the goals of this work are: to develop the theory of complex symmetric matrices as the rigorous foundations of first order systems, to exhibit in full generality the author's method of duality, and to discuss the neglected area of three dimensional effects in special relativity. The section on special relativity has been especially simplified so that it may be used as a beginning graduate text in this area. It includes the first full discussion of the Lorentz group in a book since Silberstein's pioneering 1913 treatment. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: London MethuenPublication date: 1920Subjects: Relativity (Physics)Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
Not only does this book explain the basic theory of special relativity, it also provides detailed discussions and critical considerations of the influence of special relativity in the fields of mechanics and electromagnetism. Relativistic mechanics is looked at via the four dimensional tensor techniques; relativistic expressions for the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian of a charged particle are determined, and the collision and decay of elementary particles are thoroughly covered. The authors discuss the vital role of the tensor formulation of electromagnetism in synthesizing various physical concepts - information of value to all those using field theory in any branch of physics. Other important areas covered include the relativistic kinematics of binary collisions; Lorentz transformations (emphasizing wherever possible their physical significance); and the superluminal particles - tachyons. Appendices containing information on tensor analysis and group theory are included to make the book as self-contained as possible. ... Read more

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While the theory of special relativity is often associated with the idea of traveling faster than light, this book shows that in all these cases subtle forces of nature conspire to prevent these motions being harnessed to send signals faster than the speed of light.
The author tackles these topics both conceptually, with minimal or no mathematics, and quantitatively, making use of numerous illustrations to clarify the discussion. The result is a joy to read for both scientists familiar with the subject and laypeople wishing to understand something of special relativity.
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Customer Reviews (4)

A real gem of a book
This book starts out with the usual basics of special relativity such as Lorentz transformations. It goes on to deal in some depth with such fascinating phenomena as the possibility of faster than light (superluminal) motion and the existence of especially strange particles called tachyons. Moses Fayngold accomplishes quite a feat by successfully combining the style of a popular science book with the real content of a textbook. I am an avid reader of science books (of all kinds) and I have rarely come across such a wonderful example of scientific writing. Dr. Fayngold displays a thorough understanding of educational techniques. While popular science books can be inspiring, they never leave me feeling like I have gained any actual knowledge. Textbooks, on the other hand, while full of details, lack the ability to instill a wonder at the universe that a well written popular science book can achieve. This book gives explanations of the phenomena as well as any textbook but the details are immersed in a big picture analysis that makes it worthwhile to work through the formulas and details. Reading it gave me the kind of thrill at the complexity and beauty of our universe which I only get out of popular science books. At the same time, I felt that I learned the subject at an equal depth as I would in a college course. I loved the light (unintimidating) narration tone and the little instructive tales used to illustrate the concepts. I would highly recommend this book both for personal education reading and as a textbook companion for a physics course.

A well written book!
This is a very well written book as well as very interesting and accurate.

Special Relativity and Motions Faster than Light
Everybody knows that motion of objects with the speed faster than light is impossible.
Dr. Moses Fayngold wrote a 309-page book about superluminal motions. Not a science fiction work, not a fantasy, but a book on special relativity written by a theoretical physicist, an expert in this field. It is as serious and accurate as a scientific journal publication, and as absorbing and entertaining as a good scientific popularization. Among hundreds books on relativity this one is special. It covers a variety of topics, including the most recent ones that could not always be found in the classical publications. I read it with increasing interest, gave it to my colleagues, and would recommend it to both professionals and students.
Many will be surprised to find in the book something they had not even thought about. I am sure that the book will have more editions.

Prof. Edward Parilis
California Institute of Technology

New Book on Special Relativity
This book is a rare example of the treatment that is profoundly instructive and enjoyable to read.In it the features of a reading book for educated laymen blend successfully with rigorousness and depth of a monograph for professional scientists. Intriguing and thought provoking, it can be used by students to learn basic principles of the theory of relativity, and by physics teachers to illustrate these principles and analyze their implications before any student audience.
In many discussions of the theory of relativity there is only a brief mentioning about motions faster than light. This produced a spectrum of speculations, including a widespread and totally misleading opinion among many that such motions are impossible in principle.
Moses Fayngold gives a brilliant discussion of superluminal motions and shows how they relate to the theory. Some of the problems discussed by him are unique and cannot be found in any other book.
I would recommend "Relativity and Motions Faster than Light" to anyone who wants to get a deep understanding of one of the cornerstones of Modern Physics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Simplest text I have ran into on SR...
Dr. Arthur Evett has done an excellent job introducing the beginning concepts of special relativity. The diagrams are simple and the math is all algebra. I have read at least seven different texts on this subject and for some reason I absorbed Evetts book much faster than any others, even faster than Einstien's original book on Special Relativity.

I Highly recommended this book to anyone who is just beginning to study relativity concepts. I also strongly encourage any readers to also get the book "Autodynamics" by the SAA which covers material closely related to SR, but it is more up to date, and uncovers the flaws that were discovered in Special Relativity. ... Read more

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This books aims at filling a gap between the basics courses of classical and quantum mechanics and advanced courses of (relativistic) quantum mechanics and field theory. Particular emphasis is given to the role of symmetry in modern theoretical physics. For this reason this book is particularly suited to those students who are interested in a deeper knowledge of modern developments in elementary particle physics and relativity, even if they choose not to specialize in this branch of research. This target of readers includes, besides experimental and applied physicists, also those engineers who need advanced notions of theoretical high energy physics, in view of future research activity in the field theory approach to condensed matter, in accelerator physics and in all those modern technology sectors which require a more advanced and sophisticated theoretical physics background. Courses motivated by these objectives are present in several polytechnic institutes around the world. The last chapters of this book, in particular, are of particular importance to those engineers who plan to work in high energy physics research centres, like LHC at CERN, or to collaborate to experiments on the revelation of gravitational waves. As far as engineering is concerned, it is important to stress that elementary Special and General Relativity courses are often absent in their curricula.

Product Description
This book is divided into two parts. In the first part we introduce the foundations of special relativity, such as, the inertial frame of reference, the definition of simulataneity, velocity addition, length contraction, the apparent shape of a moving body, time-dilation, Doppler effect, and the Thomas precession, in particular, the simultaneity problem and slow transport of clocks are investigated in detail by means of the test theories of special relativity. In the second, part, variant types of experiments performed up to now are analyzed and compared to the predictions of special relativity. This shows that the experiemnts are a test of the two-way speed of light, but not of the one-way speed of light. ... Read more

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The theory presented in this book is a combination of Einstein's original special and general relativity, but now the starting point is not the propagation of light but the expansion of the Universe. The traditional Hubble constant H0 (which is not constant) is called in this book- the Hubble parameter. Its value at low gravity is denoted by h, and its reciprocal is denoted by . Thus is the Big Bang time (some authors call it the Hubble-Carmeli constant). This is actually the only constant that appears in this theory, just as c is the only constant that appears in Einstein's theory. There is no cosmological constant but there is a critical mass density. The theory presents general relativity in the space-velocity (of the receding galaxies) which is later on extended to include the time dimension. So far all experimental findings are satisfied by this theory. ... Read more