Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Physics - Relativity

Chow introduces the mathematical methods essential to understanding and applying general relativity--tensor calculus, some differential geometry, etc.--but leaves to more advanced references derivations that a beginning student would likely find overly long and tedious. The book employs standard tensor analysis--which requires only basic calculus for its understanding--and resists the temptation to adopt more powerful mathematical formalisms (like exterior calculus and differential forms) used by researchers in the field. In this way, the student can concentrate on learning physics--and...

This volume reviews the current status with respect to both theory and observation of the extragalactic distance scale. A sufficient accuracy is required both for a precise determination of the cosmological parameters and also in order to achieve a better understanding of physical processes in extragalactic systems. The "standard candles," used to set up the extragalactic distance scale, reviewed in this book include cepheid variables, RR Lyrae variables, novae, Type Ia and Type II supernovae as well as globular clusters and planetary nebulae.

This book is for physicists, historians and philosophers of physics as well as students seeking an introduction to ongoing debates in relativistic and quantum physics. This title covers the recent debates on the emergence of relativity and quantum theory. It includes chapters with an introductory character, comprehensible to students and science teachers. It strengthens the bonds between the communities of scientists, historians, and philosophers.

The birth and evolution of our universe is the greatest enigma to mankind. Remarkably, it is our generation that is able to trace the evolution of the universe as a whole from its very beginning to its far future. The authors discuss possible ways to solve cosmic problems and puzzles, such as the inflationary mechanism of black hole formation, the ways to detect large scale antimatter regions and realistic mechanisms of their origin. Additional resources on inflationary scenarios, like concrete realization of the anthropic principle origin of the cosmological constant, and phase...

This text goes much further than describing the fundamentals of general relativity, using a fresh approach that explains perplexing relativistic effects such as time dilation and Lorentz contraction prior to the volume 's discussion of Lorentz-transformation.

To those of us who are not mathematicians or physicists, Einstein's theory of relativity often seems incomprehensible, exotic, and of little real-world use. None of this is true. Daniel F. Styer's introduction to the topic not only shows us why these beliefs are mistaken but also shines a bright light on the subject so that any curious-minded person with an understanding of algebra and geometry can both grasp and apply the theory.

Styer starts off slowly and proceeds carefully, explaining the concepts undergirding relativity in language comprehensible to nonscientists yet precise and...