Relativity by Albert Einstein, Routledge, 拢7.99, ISBN 0415253845
鈥淪URPRISINGLY accessible鈥�, says the blurb. I wonder whether 鈥渕oderately
baffling鈥� was considered, or 鈥渘ot quite as horrifyingly incomprehensible as I鈥檇
别虫辫别肠迟别诲鈥�?
But then this is Einstein鈥檚 Relativity. It鈥檚 the man鈥檚 own effort,
written in 1916, to popularise his ideas鈥攖he special and general theories
of relativity, the notions of time dilation and Lorentz contraction, the
space-time continuum, non-Euclidean geometry and the finite but unbounded
Universe. Of course, it鈥檚 hard. I would have been disappointed otherwise. What鈥檚
the use of reading Einstein if you can鈥檛 feel smug about it?
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I鈥檓 being a bit unfair. Although he includes some equations and plenty of
difficult ideas, Einstein is sympathetic to the reader: 鈥淭he non-mathematician
is seized by a mysterious shuddering when he hears of 鈥榝our-dimensional鈥� things,
by a feeling not unlike that awakened by thoughts of the occult鈥�. And if you can
get over the shudders, much of the book is a delight.
The brass-and-mahogany language of the translation isn鈥檛 quite modern pop
science, but Einstein鈥檚 use of analogies and metaphors is. My favourite, used to
measure out space warps that no rigid reference frame can contain, is the
flexible 鈥渞eference-mollusc鈥�.