Introducing Einstein's Relativity

by Ray d'Inverno

There is little doubt that Einstein's theory of relativity captures the imagination. It is unrivalled in forming the basis of the way we view the universe and the many surprises that the theory has in store -- the characteristics of black holes, the prospect of detecting gravitational waves, and the sheer scope and profundity of current cosmology excite all students of relativity. The aim of this textbook is to provide students with a sound mathematical introduction coupled to an understanding of the physical insights needed to explore the subject. The book follows Einstein in that it introduces the basic field equations by discussing the relativistic theory of gravitation from a physics point of view, and the structure on the resulting equations is discussed carefully before going on to their solution in simple settings. The book is designed with two objectives: to familiarize students with the basic ideas and equations of the theory, and to cover three main topics: black holes,
gravitational waves, and cosmology. Throughout, the author has included numerous exercises (of varying degrees of difficulty) to illustrate and extend the ideas covered. As a result, this book will make an excellent first course for any student coming to the subject for the first time.

Genres: Physics, Science

400 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 1992

Reviews

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where have ya been all my life...what a great intro book. This is a great place to start your studies of GR.

[meadow · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is ok but schutz's book is better. it does a pretty bad job of introducing tensors, i think. some of the exercises are good but there are too many that are very routine. i only read the first 150 or 200 pages though, so i guess keep that in mind.

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit outdated on the final chapters about Cosmology, but other than that found it a great introduction to tensorial calculus and general relativity. It does tend to give up on the exercises a bit toward the later chapters and just makes you do all the calculations that were skipped in the text.

[José Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a pretty good book. I disliked a bit th.e notation, but as a first approach, is perfect

[Mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

My version of book was better than online pdf version available which have a problems in printing

This was the main book (theoretically) for my GR class but it is good for my for introducing k-calculus which I found it very intuitive way for constructing special relativity theory

But this was from books which leaves most work in derivations for you and this is the most thing i hate for a textbook.

Also hobson book is more useful and the problems is clearer there

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Solid textbook, just caused me lots of stress

[Amirhossein · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a nice book which covers most of the important subjects in GR & Cosmology, the only problem is that lots of the equations are left to the reader to derive them in exercises.

[Lulu]

General relativity — for when you get serious