This book is an introduction to special relativity for undergraduates in physics and mathematics. It is shaped by two convictions: (1) Relativity is not a "side issue" or "special topic". Rather, it is an essential unifying idea that illuminates every branch of physics. (2) The best way to teach relativity is to adopt a "spacetime" point of view from the start. A physical situation may appear different to different observers, but every observer must see the same four-dimensional spacetime.

Beginning with an introduction to spacetime ideas and basic relativistic effects, the book moves on to four-vectors, frames of reference, energy and momentum, and the spacetime description of waves. The second half of the book, written at a somewhat higher mathematical level, discusses relativistic forces, tensors, the physics of continuous systems such as fluids, and the electromagnetic field. Three appendices give a review of vector algebra and calculus, provide an historical account of the development of relativity, and describe the "kernel-index" notation used in advanced texts on special and general relativity.

The book should be accessible to students who have completed a calculus-based introductory physics course. It may be used as the main text for a semester-long course on special relativity, or as a supplemental text in courses on modern physics, mechanics, electromagnetism, or general relativity.

 

Benjamin Schumacher began his theoretical physics career as a student of relativity pioneer John Archibald Wheeler, doing research on black hole thermodynamics. He is best known for his fundamental contributions to quantum information theory, for which he received the 2002 Quantum Communications Award (the premier international prize in the field). He has been a Rosenbaum Fellow at the Isaac Newton Institute of Cambridge University and a Moore Distinguished Scholar at Caltech. At present he is Professor of Physics at Kenyon College, where he has been on the faculty since 1988.