The Manga Guide to Relativity

マンガでわかる [Manga de Wakaru]

by Hideo Nitta, Masafumi Yamamoto, Keita Takatsu

Everything's gone screwy at Tagai Academy. When the headmaster forces Minagi's entire class to study Einstein's theory of relativity over summer school, Minagi volunteers to go in their place. There's just one problem: He's never even heard of relativity before! Luckily, Minagi has the plucky Miss Uraga to teach him.

Follow along with The Manga Guide to Relativity as Minagi learns about the non-intuitive laws that shape our universe. Before you know it, you'll master difficult concepts like inertial frames of reference, unified spacetime, and the equivalence principle. You'll see how relativity affects modern astronomy and discover why GPS systems and other everyday technologies depend on Einstein's extraordinary discovery.

The Manga Guide to Relativity also teaches you how to:

Understand and use E = mc2, the world's most famous equation Calculate the effects of time dilation using the Pythagorean theorem Understand classic thought experiments like the Twin Paradox, and see why length contracts and mass increases at relativistic speeds Grasp the underpinnings of Einstein's special and general theories of relativity

If the idea of bending space and time really warps your brain, let The Manga Guide to Relativity straighten things out.

Genres: Science, Manga, Physics, Nonfiction, Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics

182 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2009

About the author

新田英雄

Reviews

[Thomas Harning · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a physics curiosity , this is a fun way to sate it. "The Manga Guide to Relativity" by Masafumi Yamamoto, Keita Takatsu, and Hideo Nitta is a beautiful blend of manga, humor and science.

I had this book for quite some time and decided to try to get through it... little did I know that I would finish it in only a few hours of reading! While I understood some of the concepts at a very high level, some of the paradoxes and details typically got me. This guide's illustrations make the complex issues easier to grasp, while the chapter reviews help explore the topics in a little more depth.

Even though the manga was constructed with the intent of explaining the complex concepts of Special and General Relativity, it did not deviate from the tried-and-true manga recipe: bizarre scenarios, extreme characters, and strange character appearances.

The ebook format was well-implemented and worked beautifully on my Touchpad. While some PDFs choke due to overly complex layouts, this manga was smooth to navigate and rendered beautifully. Anybody used to reading mangas using "Perfect Viewer" on Android should install the PDF plugin to read this, it works great in two-page mode.

This ebook is a great read and its quality entices me to check out the other books in the "Manga guide to ..." series. If you're a high-school student just getting into physics or a manga fan looking for some intellectual fun, this book is a perfect addition to your collection.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very weird and informative. Unique story line. My head hurts now. Ow.

[Harun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty quick read. It takes common textbook examples and densely places them in a story format. It even reiterates harder concepts, has quick topics reviews, and even has some non-manga sections throughout (to deal with the heavier mathematics).

I plan on reading all of their other guides as well (from the library! :)

My niece read about half of it, but didn't understand much. It takes some focus, and the concepts aren't really suited for very young readers.

In any case, it was worth reading

[Srijata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and explains a lot in a digestible form, but I didn't like how it started with blatant homophobia/transphobia.

[Akshay Seetharam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect book

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how the author wrote a lesson about relativity into a manga to make it more entertaining for readers that are learning about relativity.

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 3 out of 5]

E anche questo l'ho finito. Ci ho sofferto un po' sopra ma comunque... Perché sì, bisogna tener presente che son tendenzialmente una capra in tutte le materie scientifiche.

Allora, la storia è la più stupida tra quelle lette finora. La novità è che c'è un'insegnante donna che spiega la relatività al rappresentante degli studenti. Solo che ha forme che trasbordano dappertutto. Mai donne normali...

Come al solito, all'inizio riuscivo anche a seguire i discorsi seri, poi mi son persa. C'è da dire che nell'ultimo capitolo si è riaccesa un po' la lampadina e son riuscita a capire qualcosa. Poco, poco.

Il cane-vicepreside è una castronata assurda, però.

Va beh, adesso passiamo ad un altro volume. Penso l'elettromagnetismo.

[Peter Schott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good read. Puts relativity concepts into something that most people can understand and delves a bit deeper in the technical parts. I enjoyed the way the book is laid out, how it builds on prior sections, and how it makes learning about relativity somewhat painless. If you need to learn the basics for something, it's definitely worth a read. If you're a science buff who likes Manga, it's also a good read. Definitely more of a niche book, but very well executed and I'm now more interested in the rest of the "Manga Guide to" series.

[Abdullah Al-uthman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book serves as the first few steps to the broad field of relativity. Although it presentation looks more suitable for children, the amount of information it has is large and some of the readers will find a certain level of difficulty reading if don't have a little bit of background. In general, I recommend this book to whoever interested in the field of relativity and want to have a general idea about it. Don't get intimated by the amount of complexity you will find in the beginning, just read through it and concentrate.

[Lori CucVig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi piace il modo in cui questa collana affronta gli argomenti. E sono stato piacevolemente informato anche questa volta. Con i giusti esempi, le abbordabili dimostrazioni. La storia, stavolta, è stata un po' fuori dall'ordinario. Sperando in storie un po' migliori, intanto si può essere felici di tutte le informazioni recuperate.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda weird but pretty good. The best thing about it is that it includes some normal text parts after each manga section to discuss formulas and introduce other related concepts. Plus, the manga portion having an actual plot, silly though it may be, helps it be easier to read.

[Emily]

This explains relativity surprisingly well, although there were a few concepts I got hung up on! I could've used this book back in the second year of my physics degree.

[Marylou (As the Page Turns)]

[Stefano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben fatto, a parte il finale della storiella che accompagna le lezioni di relatività.

[Mills College Library]

530.11 N733 2010