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List of textbooks on relativity

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Textbooks on the theory of relativity have been published by several notable physicists and mathematicians:

Special relativity

{{See also|Special theory of relativity|History of special relativity}} The primary sources section of the latter article in particular contains many additional (early) publications of importance in the field.

  • {{cite journal

|last=Lorentz |first=Hendrik |author-link=Hendrik Lorentz

|year=1892

|title=De relatieve beweging van de aarde en den aether

|language=nl

|journal=Zittingsverlag Akad.

|volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=74–79

}}

:For a translation see: s:Translation:The Relative Motion of the Earth and the Aether. Hendrik Lorentz was a major influence on Einstein's theory of special relativity. Lorentz laid the fundamentals for the work by Einstein and the theory was originally called the Lorentz-Einstein theory. After 1905 Lorentz wrote several papers on what he called "Einstein's principle of relativity".

  • {{cite journal |last=Einstein |first=Albert |author-link=Albert Einstein |title=Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper |language=de |trans-title=On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies |journal=Annalen der Physik |volume=17 |pages=891–921 |date=1905-06-30 |bibcode=1905AnP...322..891E |doi=10.1002/andp.19053221004 |issue=10 |url=http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/2786 |doi-access=free }}
  • "[http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/ On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies]". Translation by George Barker Jeffery and Wilfrid Perrett in The Principle of Relativity, London: Methuen and Company, Ltd. (1923)
  • "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies". Translation by Megh Nad Saha in The Principle of Relativity: Original Papers by A. Einstein and H. Minkowski, University of Calcutta, 1920, pp. 1–34:

:Introduced the special theory of relativity. Reconciled Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism with the laws of mechanics by introducing major changes to mechanics close to the speed of light. One of the Annus Mirabilis papers.

  • {{cite journal |last=Einstein |first=Albert |title=Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig? |journal=Annalen der Physik |volume=18 |pages=639–641 |year=1905 |url=http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/annalen/history/einstein-papers/1905_18_639-641.pdf |access-date=2008-02-18 |bibcode=1905AnP...323..639E |doi=10.1002/andp.19053231314 |issue=13 |doi-access=free }}

:English translations: "[http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/E_mc2/www/ Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?]". Translation by George Barker Jeffery and Wilfrid Perrett in The Principle of Relativity, London: Methuen and Company, Ltd. (1923).

:Used the newly formulated theory of special relativity to introduce the mass energy formula. One of the Annus Mirabilis papers.

|doi=10.1002/andp.19153521505

|author=Minkowski, Hermann |author-link=Hermann Minkowski

|orig-year=1907|year=1915

|language=de

|trans-title=The Relativity Principle

|title=Das Relativitätsprinzip

|journal=Annalen der Physik

|volume=352

|issue=15

|pages=927–938 |bibcode=1915AnP...352..927M |title-link=s:de:Das Relativitätsprinzip (Minkowski) }}

* {{Cite journal

|author=Minkowski, Hermann |author-mask=2

|date=21 December 1907

|title=Die Grundgleichungen für die elektromagnetischen Vorgänge in bewegten Körpern

|journal=Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse

|pages=53–111|title-link=s:de:Die Grundgleichungen für die elektromagnetischen Vorgänge in bewegten Körpern }}

**English translation: The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies. In: The Principle of Relativity (1920), Calcutta: University Press, 1-69

  • {{Cite journal

|author=Minkowski, Hermann |author-mask=2

|date=21 September 1908

|title=Raum und Zeit

|journal=Physikalische Zeitschrift

|volume=10

|pages=75–88

|title-link=s:de:Raum und Zeit (Minkowski) }}

** Translation by Meghnad Saha, "Space and Time" (1920): Wikisource link.

: Introduced the four-vector notation and the notion of Minkowski space, which was later adopted by Einstein and others.

  • E. T. Whittaker (1910) A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity
  • {{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=Edwin B.|authorlink1=Edwin B. Wilson|last2=Lewis|first2=Gilbert N.|authorlink2=Gilbert N. Lewis|year=1912|title=The Space-time Manifold of Relativity. The Non-Euclidean Geometry of Mechanics and Electromagnetics|journal=Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences|volume=48|issue=11|pages=387–507|doi=10.2307/20022840|jstor=20022840}}
  • {{Citation | author=Varićak, V. |authorlink=Vladimir Varićak | year=1912| title=Über die nichteuklidische Interpretation der Relativtheorie| journal=Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung | volume =21| pages =103–127}}, Wikisource translation: On the Non-Euclidean Interpretation of the Theory of Relativity
  • Henri Poincaré (1913) "The New Mechanics", The Monist Vol. XXIII, "The Relativity of Space", The Monist, Vol. XXIII.
  • Émile Borel (1914) Introduction Géométrique à quelques Théories Physiques, Gauthier-Villars
  • {{cite book |last=Silberstein |title=The Theory of Relativity |first=Ludwik |author-link=Ludwik Silberstein |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1914| url = https://archive.org/details/theoryofrelativi00silbrich/page/n7/mode/2up}}

:Used concepts developed in the then-current textbooks (e.g., vector analysis and non-Euclidean geometry) to provide entry into mathematical physics with a vector-based introduction to quaternions and a primer on matrix notation for linear transformations of 4-vectors. The ten chapters are composed of 4 on kinematics, 3 on quaternion methods, and 3 on electromagnetism. Silberstein used biquaternions to develop Minkowski space and Lorentz transformations.

  • Frank Morley (1936), "When and Where", The Criterion, edited by Thomas Stearns Eliot, volume 15, pages 200-209.
  • Vladimir Karapetoff (1944) "The special theory of relativity in hyperbolic functions", Reviews of Modern Physics 16:33–52, [https://journals.aps.org/rmp/abstract/10.1103/RevModPhys.16.33?ft=1#fulltext Abstract & link to pdf]
  • {{citation |last1=Lanczos |first1=Cornelius |author-link=Cornelius Lanczos |year=1949 |title=The Variational Principles of Mechanics |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=304–312}} Also used biquaternions.
  • {{cite book |author-link=Anthony French |first=Anthony |last=French |year=1968 |title=Special Relativity |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company}} [https://books.google.ca/books?id=8jPVRXNXj28C&redir_esc=y Google Books preview]
  • {{cite book| last =Qadir | first =Asghar | author-link =Asghar Qadir | title =Relativity: An Introduction to the Special Theory | publisher =World Scientific Publications | date = 1989| location =Singapore | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X5YofYrqFoAC| isbn =978-9971-5-0612-4 | bibcode =1989rist.book.....Q }}
  • {{cite book |first1=Edwin F. |last1=Taylor |author-link=Edwin F. Taylor |first2=John Archibald |last2=Wheeler |author2-link=John Archibald Wheeler |publisher=W. H. Freeman |edition=2nd |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-7167-2327-1 |title=Spacetime Physics: Introduction to Special Relativity |url=https://archive.org/details/spacetimephysics00edwi_0 }}
  • N. David Mermin (2005) It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity, Princeton University Press {{ISBN|978-0-691-12201-4}}

General relativity

{{See also|General theory of relativity|History of general relativity}}

  • {{cite journal |first=Albert |last=Einstein |author-link=Albert Einstein |title=Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie |language=de |trans-title=The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity |journal=Annalen der Physik |year=1916 |url=http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/annalen/history/papers/1916_49_769-822.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060823125203/http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/annalen/history/papers/1916_49_769-822.pdf |archive-date=2006-08-23 |doi=10.1002/andp.19163540702 |volume=354 |issue=7 |pages=769–822 |bibcode = 1916AnP...354..769E }}[https://web.archive.org/web/20070806094602/http://www.alberteinstein.info/gallery/gtext3.html Alberteinstein.info]

: This publication is the first complete account of a general relativistic theory.

  • Hermann Weyl (1918) [https://archive.org/details/raumzeitmateriev00weyl Raum, Zeit, Materie]. 5 edns. to 1922 ed. with notes by Jūrgen Ehlers, 1980. trans. 4th edn. Henry Brose, 1922 [https://archive.org/details/spacetimematter00weyluoft Space Time Matter], Methuen, rept. 1952 Dover. {{isbn|0-486-60267-2}}.
  • Max Born (1920) {{cite book |title=Die Relativitätstheorie Einsteins und ihre physikalischen Grundlagen|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=3936972|location=Berlin|publisher=Springer|language=de|year=1920}} – Based on Born's lectures at the University of Frankfurt am Main.Greenspan, 2005, p. 100.
  • Available in English under the title {{cite book |title=Einstein's theory of relativity|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=10969245|location=New York|publisher=Dutton|language=en|year=1922}}.
  • Alfred North Whitehead (1922) [https://archive.org/details/theprincipleofre00whituoft/page/n7/mode/2up The Principle of Relativity with applications to Physical Science]
  • {{cite book |title=The Mathematical Theory of Relativity |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.3275 |author= Eddington, Arthur Stanley |author-link=Arthur Stanley Eddington |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1923}} Einstein considered this the finest description of the theory of relativity in any language.{{cite journal|last1=Longair|first1=M.|title=Bending space-time: a commentary on Dyson, Eddington and Davidson (1920) 'A determination of the deflection of light by the Sun's gravitational field'|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences|date=6 March 2015|volume=373|issue=2039|pages=20140287|doi=10.1098/rsta.2014.0287|pmid=25750149|pmc=4360090|bibcode=2015RSPTA.37340287L}}
  • Charles Steinmetz (1923) [https://archive.org/details/fourlecturesonre00stei/page/n3/mode/2up Four Lectures on Relativity and Space]
  • Ludwik Silberstein (1924) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.212395/page/n3/mode/2up The Theory of Relativity, 2nd edition, enlarged] @ Internet Archive
  • G. D. Birkhoff (1926) Relativity and Modern Physics, [https://books.google.ca/books/about/Relativity_and_Modern_Physics.html?id=NEpAAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y Google Books snippets]
  • Wolfgang Pauli (1926) [https://archive.org/details/EncyklopdieDerMathematischenWissenschaftennfterBandPhysik/page/n545 Relativitätstheorie], Klein's encyclopedia V.19 via Internet Archive
  • {{cite book |last1= Bridgman|first1= Percy Williams|authorlink= Percy Williams Bridgman |title= A Sophisticate's Primer of Relativity|publisher= Wesleyan University Press|location= Middletown, Conn|date= 1962|oclc= 530615|url= http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015017188205;view=1up;seq=7 }}
  • Wolfgang Rindler (1969) Essential Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological, second edition 2001
  • {{cite book |last1=Misner |first1=Charles W. |author-link=Charles W. Misner |title=Gravitation |year=1973 |publisher=W. H. Freeman |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7167-0344-0 |others=24th printing |first2=Kip S. |last2=Thorne |author2-link=Kip Thorne |first3=John Archibald |last3=Wheeler |author3-link=John Archibald Wheeler}} (1200 pages){{cite journal|last1=Kaiser|first1=David|title=A Tale of Two Textbooks: Experiments in Genre|journal=Isis|date=March 2012|volume=103|issue=1|pages=126–138|doi=10.1086/664983|pmid=22655343|hdl=1721.1/82907|hdl-access=free}}
  • Paul Dirac (1975) General Theory of Relativity, 69 pages, summarises Einstein's general theory of relativity.
  • Robert Wald (1984) General Relativity

References

{{Reflist}}

{{Relativity}}

Textbooks

Relativity

Textbooks on relativity

Relativity