It is now nearly a century since relativity reconciled 17th century dynamics and 19th century electromagnetism, yet physics students are almost invariably introduced to the subject as "modern physics" and something of a mystery. This book, instead, treats special relativity as a useful branch of physics rather than as an astounding novelty. The emphasis is on its dynamical consequences, its effect on quantum mechanics (with all that this implies for chemistry and biology), the new insights that it provides in electromagnetism and its utility in problems such as calculating radiation from...