This book presents relativity extremely well for the layperson. It might even edge out Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe for the explanation of why time expands and the derivation of the formula Einstein gave for addition of velocities in special relativity.
The formula can be explained once you get time expansion and a distance formula (almost the Pythagorean theorem, but a version for non-Euclidean geometry).
The latter half of the book, in which they present and explain most of what they call "The Master Equation," which covers the non-gravity forces in the universe, lost me. I could follow along at an extremely high level, but not much more than that.
But it made physics really accessible. If you're curious about understanding what relativity really means, this is a great, non-scary book.
The formula can be explained once you get time expansion and a distance formula (almost the Pythagorean theorem, but a version for non-Euclidean geometry).
The latter half of the book, in which they present and explain most of what they call "The Master Equation," which covers the non-gravity forces in the universe, lost me. I could follow along at an extremely high level, but not much more than that.
But it made physics really accessible. If you're curious about understanding what relativity really means, this is a great, non-scary book.
