List of textbooks on relativity
Textbooks on the theory of relativity have been published by several notable physicists and mathematicians:
Special relativity
The primary sources section of the latter article in particular contains many additional publications of importance in the field.: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".
- * "". Translation by George Barker Jeffery and Wilfrid Perrett in The Principle of Relativity, London: Methuen and Company, Ltd.
- * "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:
:English translations: "". Translation by George Barker Jeffery and Wilfrid Perrett in The Principle of Relativity, London: Methuen and Company, Ltd..
:Used the newly formulated theory of special relativity to introduce the mass energy formula. One of the Annus Mirabilis papers.
- Henri Poincaré "On the Dynamics of the Electron", Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo
**English translation: The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies. In: The Principle of Relativity, Calcutta: University Press, 1-69
** Translation by Meghnad Saha, "Space and Time" : Wikisource link.
: Introduced the four-vector notation and the notion of Minkowski space, which was later adopted by Einstein and others.
- E. T. Whittaker A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity
- , Wikisource translation: On the Non-Euclidean Interpretation of the Theory of Relativity
- Henri Poincaré "The New Mechanics", The Monist Vol. XXIII, "The Relativity of Space", The Monist, Vol. XXIII.
- Émile Borel Introduction Géométrique à quelques Théories Physiques, Gauthier-Villars
- Used concepts developed in the then-current textbooks 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.
- Arthur W. Conway via Internet Archive
- Ebenezer Cunningham and
- Alfred North Whitehead
- Frank Morley, "When and Where", The Criterion, edited by Thomas Stearns Eliot, volume 15, pages 200-209.
- Vladimir Karapetoff "The special theory of relativity in hyperbolic functions", Reviews of Modern Physics 16:33-52,
- Also used biquaternions.
- N. David Mermin It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity, Princeton University Press
General relativity
: This publication is the first complete account of a general relativistic theory.- Hermann Weyl '. 5 edns. to 1922 ed. with notes by Jūrgen Ehlers, 1980. trans. 4th edn. Henry Brose, 1922 ', Methuen, rept. 1952 Dover..
- Max Born – Based on Born's lectures at the University of Frankfurt am Main.
- *Available in English under the title.
- Ebenezer Cunningham, second edition
- Alfred North Whitehead
- Einstein considered this the finest description of the theory of relativity in any language.
- Charles Steinmetz
- Ludwik Silberstein @ Internet Archive
- G. D. Birkhoff Relativity and Modern Physics,
- Wolfgang Pauli, Klein's encyclopedia V.19 via Internet Archive
- Wolfgang Rindler Essential Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological, second edition 2001
- Paul Dirac General Theory of Relativity, 69 pages, summarises Einstein's general theory of relativity.
- Robert Wald General Relativity