THE breezy title of this book conceals ambition. To get at the origins of E=mc2, the poster-child for Einstein鈥檚 special theory of relativity, they must delve into deep principles of science and wield a good deal of mathematics. They do it well, aside from a few too many digressions and an over-optimistic attitude that 鈥測ou will have a go with the maths even if you have no prior experience at all鈥�. It means some of the crucial exploration of relativity is tangled up with a simultaneous attempt to explain the basics of algebra.
Nevertheless, they have blazed a clear trail into forbidding territory, from the mathematical structure of space-time all the way to atom bombs, astrophysics and the origin of mass. And if special relativity isn鈥檛 enough for you, there鈥檚 a final-chapter taster of Einstein鈥檚 more difficult theory, general relativity, and its weird world of warped space-time.
Da Capo Press