I will be taking a course in the new year on Relativity (Special and
General). The course is designed for Non-Physics types and uses the
following book as its text ...

"Understanding Relativity: A Simplified Approach to Einstein's Theories",
Leo Sartori, 1996 (University of California Press)

I would be interested in opinions of the book from anyone familiar with it
and/or its author.

(To their credit, they also list "Spacetime Physics", Taylor, E. F. &
Wheeler, J. A., as a good book to have around.)

Thanks

John Zinni wrote:

I will be taking a course in the new year on Relativity (Special and
General). The course is designed for Non-Physics types and uses the
following book as its text ...

"Understanding Relativity: A Simplified Approach to Einstein's Theories",
Leo Sartori, 1996 (University of California Press)

I would be interested in opinions of the book from anyone familiar with it
and/or its author.

I haven't seen the book, but it gets a favorable review from an
excellent site by Andrew Hamilton.

http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/astr3740_99/texts.html

Don't miss the "relativity" link at the top of the page. I very
much enjoy the presentation given in Hamilton's "tour" of special
relativity. Have fun in class!


---Tim Shuba---