Rating: 
Summary: THE Classic
Review: I do not know how I can adequately review this. That this is indispensible to any theoretical physicist is pretty much the extent of what I am about to say. I mean, here you have the greatest scientific giants of all time grappling with some of the deepest, most complicated issues of 20th century physics: you not only get the opportunity of finding out what they really thought about relativity, with all mathematical and philosophical details, but you also are able to see how truly great minds go about solving difficult problems (which, I feel, should be an inspiration for modern theoreticians as to how to solve the problems associated with quantum gravity, string theory, etc.). Just the section of Einstein's paper The Foundations of a General Relativity Theory on the deep, philosophical reasons why a theory of nature should be generaly relativistic are well worth getting this book; I personally think that this one paper is the greatest scientific publication of all time (Principia is certainly bolder, more revolutionary, but Einstein's deepest ruminations, I feel, are almost religious). To be sure, one needs certain mathematical training to get the full benefit of this book, but this could be said of relativity in general; I personally do not think that one can fully comprehend relativity theory, in all its beautiful glory, without this training. Despite this, I still think it is possible, even without sufficient mathematical training, to get a real feel of how these titans thought and felt, even if just by osmosis (you know that profound thoughts are being expressed when you can almost grasp them without really understanding them). In short, it is the duty of every physicist, maybe even every scientist, not just to read, but to EXPERIENCE this book (that is the only way I can adequately describe this; it is an experience).
Rating: 
Summary: Laypeople: avoid this book! Physicists: Buy this book!
Review: I really do not know how to rate this book. I hope that rating it with three stars could be a neutral point between the opinions of laypeople and the physics' community. This book is a collection of the most important lectures given by Einstein, Lorentz, Minkowski and Weyl that led to the formulation of the theory of relativity in its two parts. The first part is the special theory, which studies the inertial and moving reference frames without considering the effects of gravity. The second part, the general theory, explains the nature of gravity as a consequence of the curvature of Minkowski's four-dimensional space-time. The expositions featured in the book are, of course, the written version of the lectures given decades ago by its authors. Because of this, they are plenty of strange-looking and complex equations to the laypeople but, for any physicist, is a beautiful mathematical symphony that explains with accuracy the principle of relativity. You have to be a physicist to fully understand this book, namely, if you are not a physicist, or, if you are not formally studying physics, please avoid this book!. I am almost sure that you will get tired of reading it after the first lecture if you do not have solid knowledge of physics and mathematics. Try to look somewhere else for less complicated explanations of the relativity. Maybe the book: "Relativity: The Special and the General Theory" could be useful for you, the laypeople. Nevertheless, in the other hand, if you are a physicists or something like that, this book must be in your shelf as one of the richest treasures in all-time physics.
Rating:
Summary: Laypeople: avoid this book! Physicists: Buy this book!
Review: I really do not know how to rate this book. I hope that rating it with three stars could be a neutral point between the opinions of laypeople and the physics' community. This book is a collection of the most important lectures given by Einstein, Lorentz, Minkowski and Weyl that led to the formulation of the theory of relativity in its two parts. The first part is the special theory, which studies the inertial and moving reference frames without considering the effects of gravity. The second part, the general theory, explains the nature of gravity as a consequence of the curvature of Minkowski's four-dimensional space-time. The expositions featured in the book are, of course, the written version of the lectures given decades ago by its authors. Because of this, they are plenty of strange-looking and complex equations to the laypeople but, for any physicist, is a beautiful mathematical symphony that explains with accuracy the principle of relativity. You have to be a physicist to fully understand this book, namely, if you are not a physicist, or, if you are not formally studying physics, please avoid this book!. I am almost sure that you will get tired of reading it after the first lecture if you do not have solid knowledge of physics and mathematics. Try to look somewhere else for less complicated explanations of the relativity. Maybe the book: "Relativity: The Special and the General Theory" could be useful for you, the laypeople. Nevertheless, in the other hand, if you are a physicists or something like that, this book must be in your shelf as one of the richest treasures in all-time physics.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, but un-true
Review: I think the theory is flawed. A giant goat with a big magnet is responsible for gravity. That's until the goats keeper takes it away for milking and then there's no gravity.
Rating:
Summary: Finest book if you can deal with maths
Review: If you are serious about relavity, read this book and no other. It has original papers from Einstein and others, and they are not as difficult as they say they are. In fact, since Einstein mentions everything in full detail, he sounds much more convincing and clearer than all those authors who hide intricate details of the subject.This book is not for you unless you want to get to the fine MATHEMATICS of it. If you are serious about relativity, then you must get the mathematics too. And if you want mathematics too, get this book.
Rating:
Summary: Einstein: the originals
Review: Of course this is a five-star book: it contains two of the most
important scientific documents of all time! It is, of course, not a book for beginners: the very Planck, who was the editor of the Annalen der Physik, where the German originals were published, had to ask for explanations a few times, in order to grasp the meaning of the "Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies". The teaching of relativity is now done in a rather different way, emphasizing, from the beginning, the 4-dimensional picture, as in Taylor-Wheeler's "Spacetime physics". Einstein's paper is on a modification of electrodynamics to make it agree with the tenets of relativity (the particular inertial frame being used is of no effect at all). In order to do that he finds it necessary to change mechanics, and actually the very basic concepts of mechanics. In contrast, the great paper on general relativity "Foundations of general relativity" has pedagogical preocupations, and is quite readable, including an interesting introduction to tensors which clearly shows that, master of the physics of the problem, Einstein was a novice at the mathematics of it. This book is a treasure. There are also papers by Lorentz, Poincare' and others. Great fun. But, learn your relativity first!
Rating:
Summary: How science should be written
Review: Reading the original papers would be best, but if you don't read German then the Dover collection is the next best thing. In the paper on special relativity, the Lorentz transformations are derived via formulating and solving a first order pde, a treatment that no textbook presents (first order pdes aren't taught in math physics, in spite of the fact that every set of first order autonomous odes generates a first order pde). It took my teaching the subject to advanced undergrads in later years to realize what many others have by now noticed, namely, you don't need two postulates for special relativity. "Galilean invariance" is enough. The constancy of the speed of light follows from the requirement that there is no special reference frame. Einstein's presentation of GR is unsurpassed for conciseness and clarity, is a model for other researchers to follow when writing papers. Here, he introduces the famous misconception (corrected today in the better texts like Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler) that general covariance is a physical principle. Well, even the greatest minds make mistakes. Feynman wrote well, but no scientist to date has written better than Einstein.
Rating:
Summary: A great book writted by the genius himself
Review: This book clearly illustrates the theory of relativity and all of its aspects. I am a junior in high school and I found this book both captivating and easy to understand. I think anyone who is interested in this subject like I am should read this book. It is one of the best books I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A colection of classical articles
Review: This book is not for the usual reader, it contains many articles from the beginning of the 20th century in physics that are now classics.
Basically it deals with the birth of relativity theory, in form of a collection of articles related beetween them and that describe the early evolution of the theory in the circle of physics. The original audience was cientists, so the usual reader will be daunted by formulas and formal description of theories and hipotheses.
It is however a must read for physics students and those interested in theory of relativity and a strong reference for PHD thesis and cientific works.
I bought it to use in my PHD thesis as reference as the basis of the view of the world where there is no priviledged point of reference, that is, everything is relative, wether in physical sciences or social sciences. This is the essence of the relativism that permeates the post-modern view of world, and historiography today.
I strongly recommend it for use as reference for cientists and students, but it is daunting in mathematics, You can use it without knowing lots of math, but you need to understand the concepts derived from the math. They are surprisinlgy well described by einstein and the others, after all they were geniuses.
Rating:
Summary: An accessible reference book
Review: This compact collection of English translations of the original papers is a cheap and highly accessible reference book. The book is a chronology of the development of the theory of Relativity. Starting with Lorentz' papers on Michelson's interference experiment and electomagnetic phenomena in moving frames of reference, the book follows the rapid development of the subject from Einstein's ground breaking papers of 1905 on Electrodymanics and Inertia. Minkowski's original paper on Space-Time is a delight: it's always a pleasant surprise when one finds that the explanation of the originator has not been bettered in nearly 100 years! Latter chapters of the book present Einstein's papers on General Relativity -which are mathematically complex. They are definately not the place to start if one wants to learn the principles of General Relativity. Nonetheless, after one has learnt the principles from more accessible materials, such as "The Principles of Cosmology and Gravitation" by M V Berry, these papers can be very useful as original sources that the reader can use in order to grasp the methods by which Einstein presented his revolutionary discoveries. This is an excellent, high value, low cost source that is worth keeping!
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