Relativity: The Special and the General Theory - Couverture rigide

Einstein, Albert

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1936690012 ISBN 13 : 9781936690015

Editeur : Ancient Wisdom Publications, 2010

Synopsis

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. General relativity generalises special relativity and Newton's law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the four-momentum (mass-energy and linear momentum) of whatever matter and radiation are present. The relation is specified by the Einstein field equations, a system of partial differential equations. Einstein's theory has important astrophysical implications. For example, it implies the existence of black holes-regions of space in which space and time are distorted in such a way that nothing, not even light, can escape-as an end-state for massive stars. There is evidence that such stellar black holes as well as more massive varieties of black hole are responsible for the intense radiation emitted by certain types of astronomical objects such as active galactic nuclei or microquasars.

A propos du livre

Biographie de l'auteur

ALBERT EINSTEIN was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879. An indifferent student, Einstein gave little hint of the great scientist he would become: he found school merely monotonous; indeed, one of his teachers at the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich, Switzerland, where Einstein enrolled in 1896, later described him as "a lazy fellow, [who] never cared for mathematics."

Following graduation in 1900, Einstein worked for two years as a private teacher before being hired by the Swiss Patent Office at Bern. In 1903 Einstein married Mileva Maric, who had also been a student at the Polytechnic. Following the birth of two sons, the couple divorced in 1919.

The undemanding job at the Patent Office left Einstein time to give birth to those burgeoning ideas that would change physics forever. In 1905 he published the first of his revolutionary papers on relativity (the second  would  follow  a decade later), as well as groundbreaking papers on Brownian motion and the photo­-electric effect. Yet, despite this prodigious output, Einstein could not leave the  Patent  Office  until 1909, when  he was  offered an associate professorship at the University of Zurich. From Zurich Einstein went to spend a year at the German University  of Prague, and two years  at  the Zurich Polytechnic. In  1914 he moved to Berlin, where he became professor and later director at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of  Physics. Einstein continued to work unstintingly on quantum mechanics (publishing two great papers in 1924-25) and a unified field theory.

In the 1920s, Einstein, witnessing the growing anti-Semitism around him, began to espouse Zionism. In 1933, while Einstein was visiting the United States with his second wife, Elsa, Adolf Hitler ascended to power. Effectively barred from Germany because he was a Jew, Einstein accepted a professorship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and became a naturalized American citizen in 1940. From his home in Princeton, Einstein used his fame and influence to rescue colleagues still trapped in Germany.

Fearful that the Nazis would develop an atomic bomb, Einstein wrote to President Franklin Delano  Roosevelt in 1939 in order to encourage him to begin the United States on a program of uranium research. After World War II, however, Einstein would work  for nuclear  disarmament. In 1952, in  recognition of his devotion to the causes of peace and  Zionism, Einstein was offered, but refused, the presidency of Israel. He died in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 18, 1955, after a long illness.

Albert Einstein published works of interest to the layperson: The Nature of Relativity (1923), Builders of the Universe (1932), Why War? (with Sigmund  Freud) (1933),  The World  As  I See It (1934), and Out of My Later Years (1950).

Présentation de l'éditeur

To quote Einstein himself, this slim volume was "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". Despite his formidable intellect, Einstein writes in a clear and engaging style, using familiar examples to illustrate his theories and their surprising conclusions. Anyone with a curiosity about the man, and his often misquoted theories, would do well to settle down with this book in a comfortable chair, and shut the door - you will need to think and imagine hard to keep up with Einstein! Delve into the world of the infitinely small, infinitely large, and lightning fast, and at least scrape the surface of these two great concepts which laid the foundations for atomic, nuclear and quantum physics in the following decades, and made space flight and modern astronomy possible.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Ancient Wisdom Publications
• Date d'édition: 2010
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1936690012
• ISBN 13: 9781936690015
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 74
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible