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sunshine42's review against another edition
5.0
Omg I had no idea how shallow my understanding of relativity was!! Eye opening & exciting read. A bit difficult to follow at times and I still have a few technical questions that I'll need to look-up myself, but I still learned a lot!
While the progress we've made is astounding, I can't help but feel a bit of despair at the thought of how this progress was achieved sometimes (see the Minkowski spacetime "why not try Pythagora's theorem with a minus sign???") and all the "forced" assumptions we've made when shaping our theories (e.g. the demands of causality when shaping up the spacetime "rules")
Definitely recommend it!
While the progress we've made is astounding, I can't help but feel a bit of despair at the thought of how this progress was achieved sometimes (see the Minkowski spacetime "why not try Pythagora's theorem with a minus sign???") and all the "forced" assumptions we've made when shaping our theories (e.g. the demands of causality when shaping up the spacetime "rules")
Definitely recommend it!
arf88's review against another edition
4.0
Fantastic book if you're interested in physics or just want to know the actual science behind the worlds most famous equation. They authors do a fantastic job explaining everything, building on what's come before, so that buy the time to get the the complicated theoretical stuff you're not completely lost.
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
3.0
It's appropriate that this is the last book I read during 2013: I came into the reading year with a flerph by way of Joseph Citro's Lake Monsters (flerph = lazy raspberry) and I've gone out with a fizzle.
Now, to be fair, this fizzle is not because of Cox and Forshaw's book, which is interesting and very well read. The fizzle is because this book is so very over my head, and because I made the mistake of pausing for about a week when I was a couple of hours into it. That meant that all of the math formulas and physics the authors had laid the foundation for in the first few chapters were well and good out of my head. And then, once I picked it back up, I never really caught back up with the material.
The history of physics and math did stick, as did some of the early principles, like the impossibility of absolute time and motion. And what did stick was, in all truthfulness, so super cool. But either Cox and Forshaw gave me more credit than I deserved by saying that readers needed only a rudimentary knowledge of math, or I did myself the worst disservice by listening to this instead of reading a hard copy. I'll try to re-read this, which will be easy since it's short, and since Forshaw, who narrates this book, sounds quite a bit like Neil Gaiman, and that is very nice to listen to.
Now, to be fair, this fizzle is not because of Cox and Forshaw's book, which is interesting and very well read. The fizzle is because this book is so very over my head, and because I made the mistake of pausing for about a week when I was a couple of hours into it. That meant that all of the math formulas and physics the authors had laid the foundation for in the first few chapters were well and good out of my head. And then, once I picked it back up, I never really caught back up with the material.
The history of physics and math did stick, as did some of the early principles, like the impossibility of absolute time and motion. And what did stick was, in all truthfulness, so super cool. But either Cox and Forshaw gave me more credit than I deserved by saying that readers needed only a rudimentary knowledge of math, or I did myself the worst disservice by listening to this instead of reading a hard copy. I'll try to re-read this, which will be easy since it's short, and since Forshaw, who narrates this book, sounds quite a bit like Neil Gaiman, and that is very nice to listen to.
hank's review against another edition
4.0
This wasn't the easiest book on Physics I have read, yet it wasn't the hardest either. There is information and enjoyment in here for a broad range of interests and abilities. I got a bit tangled with the math and concepts towards the end but enjoyed the bits I understood and have a much better concept of space/time now
bupdaddy's review against another edition
4.0
This book presents relativity extremely well for the layperson. It might even edge out Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe for the explanation of why time expands and the derivation of the formula Einstein gave for addition of velocities in special relativity.
The formula can be explained once you get time expansion and a distance formula (almost the Pythagorean theorem, but a version for non-Euclidean geometry).
The latter half of the book, in which they present and explain most of what they call "The Master Equation," which covers the non-gravity forces in the universe, lost me. I could follow along at an extremely high level, but not much more than that.
But it made physics really accessible. If you're curious about understanding what relativity really means, this is a great, non-scary book.
My edition also credits Jeff Forshaw as an author.
The formula can be explained once you get time expansion and a distance formula (almost the Pythagorean theorem, but a version for non-Euclidean geometry).
The latter half of the book, in which they present and explain most of what they call "The Master Equation," which covers the non-gravity forces in the universe, lost me. I could follow along at an extremely high level, but not much more than that.
But it made physics really accessible. If you're curious about understanding what relativity really means, this is a great, non-scary book.
My edition also credits Jeff Forshaw as an author.
ssofia_reads's review against another edition
2.0
Complicated concepts thoroughly explained. Although there is a good attempt at putting everything in layman's terms, I wouldn't necessarily describe the delivery as simple.
Unfortunately, due to this book containing mathematical formulas, the audio book format didn't really work for some sections. If you want to read this, I recommend getting a physical copy.
Unfortunately, due to this book containing mathematical formulas, the audio book format didn't really work for some sections. If you want to read this, I recommend getting a physical copy.