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Reading relativity

scientific diagram of a ladybug on a ball, inside a box in outer space

Online, I run into a lot of laypeople who are curious about black holes or the big bang, as well as people with more of a background in philosophy, engineering, or one of the sciences. Often they have great questions, but haven’t been looking in the right places to get clear, reliable information. Laypeople are often reading magazine or newspaper popularizations, or watching videos, and many of those treatments are inaccurate. People with more of a STEM background may be looking at presentations that are old-fashioned or that make the subject look more mysterious than it is. This blog post is my attempt to provide a reader’s guide to relativity, with options that allow you to decide how much you want to try to digest at once, and at what math level.

Because I love free information, I’ve tried to list mostly free articles and books, but when there’s a non-free book that I think is outstanding, I’ve included it. Some of the links are to materials written by me (Ben Crowell). The list is broken down into headings by general topic, and then each heading lists resources at different mathematical levels. Of the books that are not free, many can be borrowed for free by clicking through on the links to the Internet Archive.

Spacetime diagrams, relativity of time, the light cone

This is a topic that is inherently pretty easy to discuss without a lot of math. The resources below are all ones that use only easy math.

The metric

With easy math

Sophomore STEM level

With calculus, designed for an upper-division class for physics majors

The Lorentz transformation, combination of velocities

With easy math

Sophomore STEM level

With calculus, designed for an upper-division class for physics majors

Momentum, energy, and E=mc²

With easy math

Sophomore STEM level

With calculus, designed for an upper-division class for physics majors

General relativity

With easy math

With calculus, designed for an upper-division class for physics majors

Graduate level

Cosmology

With easy math

With calculus, designed for an upper-division class for physics majors

Ben Crowell, 2023 Jan. 4

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