Other Non-Fiction Einstein, Albert: Relativity - The Special and General Theory. v1, 27 Dec 2007

[vivaldirules]

This text is from the 1920 second edition of the English translation by Robert W. Lawson.

From the author's preface:

"The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. The work presumes a standard of education corresponding to that of a university matriculation examination, and, despite the shortness of the book, a fair amount of patience and force of will on the part of the reader. The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection in which they actually originated. In the interest of clearness, it appeared to me inevitable that I should repeat myself frequently, without paying the slightest attention to the elegance of the presentation. I adhered scrupulously to the precept of that brilliant theoretical physicist, L. Boltzmann, according to whom matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor and to the cobbler. I make no pretence of having with-held from the reader difficulties which are inherent to the subject. On the other hand, I have purposely treated the empirical physical foundations of the theory in a “step-motherly” fashion, so that readers unfamiliar with physics may not feel like the wanderer who was unable to see the forest for trees. May the book bring some one a few happy hours of suggestive thought!"

- A. Einstein
December, 1916

This is my first completed conversion using BD and I'm not at all satisfied with the readability of either the equations or the figures. I will replace these in a future version - hopefully soon.

[UncleDuke]

nice change from the normal fare here

i don't understand a bit of it, my math stops at calculating the tip for dinner

[Armaced]

Very nice - thanks!