The Special Theory of Relativity (Routledge Classics) 1st Edition

If fractional stars could be awarded I would give this book 4.5 stars. I liked it but in my opinion was not quite a 5 star book. Being unable to give it 4.5 stars I am giving it the benefit of the doubt and going with 5 stars, but with some reservations, discussed below.I really liked the first three-quarters of the book. Professor Bohm writes with clarity, giving more than just derivations of basic equations (which he does with some rigor), but also provides a very clear exposition of why things are what the theory says they are. He provides not only the standard treatment of relativity, but also provides details about the ether theory, Lorentz' attempt to save it in the face of contradictory experimental evidence and the behavior of charged particles in electromagnetic fields - the last item a subject that is generally not covered in a basic treatment of relativity theory. In terms of difficulty, I would rate the book as being much more difficult than Gardner's "Relativity Simply Explained" or Wolfson's "Simply Einstein", but less difficult than an intermediate college text. It is suitable for someone wishing to learn the subject on their own, but only if they have some physics background and are willing to deal with some basic algebra and a little first year college math. It is also very useful for someone studying this subject in college, as Professor Bohm's explanations of the nature of relativity theory are very good, making this an excellent adjunct to a standard college text.Unfortunately, I found the last quarter of the text a bit less clear than the first three-quarters. This latter quarter deals with the Minkowski Diagram, K calculus and applications of these subjects. Many basic books cover Minkowski's space-time approach, but few cover K calculus, for good reason. I found these discussions rushed and far from clear. Also, the text covering several of the figures contain reference to letter denoted items that are not on the figure, making it very difficult to follow what Bohm is trying to get across. As noted by other reviewers, there were some typographical errors (mostly leaving out prime superscripts and alike) that needlessly confused things. I had the feeling that if another 50 pages had been allotted to the latter half of the book it would have been greatly improved.There is a 60-page appendix that discusses Physics and Perception. Professor Bohm obviously was greatly influenced by the work of Piaget and other physiologists and used this to try to explain how we learn to interpret the world, how this defines our concept of it, and why this makes the basic concepts of Special Relativity are so difficult to accept. While very useful and informative, this is an area where I think that less would have definitely been more. A brief 10-page summary would been, for me, clearer, more focused, and would therefore have had more impact.All in all, I liked this book and would recommend it to someone who is really interested in Relativity Theory, but if all you want is a basic primer on what the subject is about, without somewhat rigorous mathematical derivations, then this would not be the best choice for you.

This book is a thorough and well written introduction to the “Special Theory of Relativity”. In addition to the basics of special relativity it covers the history of Special Relativity and it includes 60-pages of Lorentz Electrodynamics. The book also discusses Minkowski Diagrams, the Twin Paradox, relativistic Doppler effects, K-Calculus, and philosophy related to relativity. The book does not discuss General Relativity.Bohm does not derive many formulas for electrodynamics, optics, quantum physics, thermodynamics, etc, and therefore this book does not resemble a text book. Bohm's focus is on a deeper understanding of the special theory of relativity itself, and on time and space. He discusses perception of reality and includes discussions on child development, psychology and neurology related to perception, the meaning of the relational concepts in relativity, the structure of scientific revolutions (T.S. Kuhn), our perceptions of time and space, philosophy, and other related topics that cannot be classified as physics.In K Calculus you draw the world lines of light pulses sent at constant intervals between different observers. Then you calculate what is essentially the Doppler factor K and uses it to explain what is going in relativity. In contrast the Lorentz transform is concerned with the space-time coordinates that you measure after taking into account that light have to travel a certain distance and that this takes time. Basically, the "actual time and space coordinates". K Calculus on the other hand is including both relativistic effects and the distance and time it takes for light to travel. K Calculus is thus not what you "measure" but what you "observe". K Calculus makes it very easy to explain special relativity to an audience that is not strong in math and it also adds a new understanding to the special theory of relativity. However, I see an inherent risk with K-Calculus in that it can end up fooling the student into believing that he understands relativity, for example, if a student incorrectly comes to believe that time dilation is some form of Doppler Effect.Except for the fact that some of the mathematical derivations were unnecessarily complex I thought this book presented relativity lucidly, the philosophical discussions were insightful, and it added to my understanding of the topic. It should probably not be your first book on Special Relativity but it is a very good second book. I highly recommend it for those who want to think through the concepts of relativity a little deeper.

But, with an unacceptable number of typos of all kinds : text, formulae, lettering, notations, figures etc.The editors should be banned and taught proofreading !!!Now, more fundamentally : Bohm's exposition of Special Relativity (SR) is a masterpiece, with a clarity that outpasses almost all other texts on SR which I know of.Unfortunately, even though he slightly refers to General Relativity (GR), he neglects to dig into the fundamental question posed by Eddington : what is "really real" about time dilation and length contraction, i.e. what happens or doesn't happen to clocks and rods ?Clearly, Einstein evaded the question ; Eddington, Lieber and Born touched upon it... ; Ashok N. Katti divides it between "kinematics" effects in case of constant velocity (SR) and "physical/intrinsic" effects in case velocity changes in direction or magnitude (GR)... ; Vesselin Petkov and Harvey R. Brown went the "dynamics" and "quantum" routes, which seem to get us closer to a non-ambiguous answer...And, as shown by H.C. Ohanian, this evolution of ideas brings us back to Lorentz's theory of the electron, i.e. back to the pioneers : Poincaré and Lorentz who "saw" the real explanation, even if they couldn't formulate it completely... Einstein didn't "see" it or refused to see : who could say ?Finally, Bohm took an entirely different route and gave a beautiful and convincing exposition of "Physics and Perception" in his long appendix.NB. Refer to my comments on "The Principle of Relativity" (Einstein, Lorentz, Weyl, Minkowski).

Bohm’s book on Special Relativity is a classic. It’s highly recommended for two reasons.Firstly, Bohm explains Special Relativity (SR) thoroughly and historically. He explains why physicists in the 19th century were so sure the ether existed and how they ‘almost’ derived the main results of SR. He then explains Einstein’s great leap forward with his constancy of light postulate and principle of relativity. Bohm goes on to derive all the main results in SR and all the main Lorentz transformations of coordinates, velocity, mass, Energy, momentum, forces, electromagnetism etc. He also gives a lot of examples.The second reason the book is so good is that Bohm knew Einstein. He had many conversations with him on the subject and can write from this perspective.On the negative side there are a few typos in the book - even in the latest edition. But they are minor and for some reason nearly always just a mislaid index on a velocity. It’s good fun to correct the formula when a mistake comes up. (There aren’t that many.)Overall it’s an excellent book and a great companion to more recent interpretations. In fact I’d go as far as to say that it’s hard to really appreciate what is so significant about Einstein’s achievement in SR without reading a book like this one.In terms of the maths- most is understandable with a decent A level maths or physics.

Great book,as if Bohm knows Einstein quite personally and he understands his STR quite well.Got it from amazon at ₹396,pretty decent price.

If you buy this book, don't believe equations in this book.Misprints in equations section is very frequent (such as v_i becoming v_1, dropping of coefficients, etc).Maybe there are author's intension to make readers to derive equations by themselves.I don't know but I must warn you about this if you are going to buy this book.

Good Book