The Geometry of Spacetime : An Introduction to Special and General Relativity

Preliminary Text. DO NOT USE. In 1905, Albert Einstein offered a revolutionary theory--special relativity--to explain some of the most troubling problems about electromagnetism and motion in the physics of the day. Soon afterwards, Hermann Minkowski recast special relativity essentially as a new geometric structure for spacetime. These ideas are the subject of the first part of the book. The second part introduces the theory of frames, surfaces, and intrinsic geometry in order to develop the main implications of Einsteins general relativity.