Science Fact & Fiction - Albert Einstein

Relativity, The Special and the General Theory

by Albert Einstein (1920), with an introduction by Niger Calder (2006)

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Science fiction is based in science possibility. In fact, some inventions have been formulated on the basis of ideas in science fiction novels, shows on TV, and sci-fi movies.

Some scientists have attempted to help the general population, STEM students, and the interested science hobbyist to understand their investigation and findings, and their dreams for the future.

Albert Einstein was such a scientist that demonstrated that a sense of imagination, a childlike sense of wonder, and a sense of humor are important to the field of scientific enquiry.

Relativity, The Special and the General Theory By Albert Einstein, with a 2006 introduction by Niger Calder is a fascinating and compact book that packs a lot of understandable information about physics in its short volume. Einstein wrote it in efforts to help the general population better understand his concepts of time and space as put forward in his general and special theories of relativity.

After having read the original Einstein works, a reading of this piece acts as a thorough summary and as an outline to the educated public for Einstein's discovery and understanding of the relationship between and among light, time, and dimensional realities. Together with the introduction, this book demonstrates that imagination is required to begin to pull back the cover on and finally understand pieces of the unknown. Imagination can seem like magic when some truth is found from its application.

A basic education in mathematics and science is helpful in understanding this Penguin Classics edition. The introduction by Niger Calder is interesting in itself to read and digest.

Even those who know nothing of physics will find some bits of the writing very intriguing, with diagrams and explanations that are easy to follow. The appendices to the book include "Simple Derivations of the Lorentz Transformation", which would be a good aid to any high school or college student taking introductory physics courses. The next appendix is "Minkowski's Four-Dimensional Space ("World") and is an interesting, helpful further simplification to Lorentz. The third appendix contains "The Experimental Confirmation of the General Theory of Relativity" that straightforwardly explains light deflection, displacement of spectral lines, and the effect of movement(s) on time.

Calder's introduction paves a solid path toward reading the text and the appendices wrap it up nicely, in my opnion. After reading this book originally published in 1920, it is interesting to read Flatland by Edwin Abbott in 1880, Burger's 1983 Sphereland, and the 1940 short story by Robert A. Heinlein entitled And He Built a Crooked House (also known as "The Tesseract"). Taken together, it is exciting that these four books and a story begin to show us how imagination and science fiction are becoming scientific fact and modern invention.

I have re-read all of these nooks recently and recommend them to anyone that enjoys science fiction, math and science, and good story telling.

Don't miss a modern book called Flatterland, by Ian Stewart, reviewed on the website of The Mathematical Association of America (MAA Online) by Thomas F. Banchoff . I have not read the book yet, but inteand to do so. An exceprt of the review:

"Like Flatland only more so" is the cover claim of the new book by my friend Ian Stewart, and, like most Flatland purists, I was very skeptical when I first encountered that description. But I ended up by writing a recommendation for the back cover that fairly accurately but slightly incompletely registers my evaluation: "Flatterland challenges readers to go beyond Flatland and deal with phenomena, not just in dimensions higher than four, but in many exotic geometric realms that stretch our imagination and powers of visualization. Readers who have enjoyed other works by Ian Stewart will delight in his play with words and concepts."