by Russell Stannard, Oxford
University Press. Paperback ISBN 9780199236220, £7.99.
In the series of Very Short Introductions by Oxford University Press there have been nuggets and non-nuggets. The book Relativity is definitely a nugget. We can all do the simple maths and use Pythagoras’s theorem but I have always found it difficult – even from Albert Einstein’s popular little book – to gain some “more intuitive” understanding of relativity. Russell Stannard’s text is the best that I have read.
He begins with the familiar: simultaneity, constancy of the speed of light, the paradox of the twin astronauts and so on. In each case he goes straight to the heart of the phenomenon – and each time I felt that I came out with a deeper understanding and better appreciation of how simple it all is. Stannard has in this short work collected all of the best analogies that I have come across while also managing to keep the reader smiling with some tongue-in-cheek remarks. There are a number of mathematical expressions sprinkled throughout the text; and they are not beyond the abilities of the interested layperson. The drawings and formulae are good, with artwork that is vastly better than in some of the other volumes in the series.
However, OUP has still not got it all entirely right. For example, the square root symbol – important in this particular text – is just a V symbol. Weird. In all, this is a pleasant book to read. It reminds one of how strange reality really is and how difficult it is for us humans to make simple mental models. This book is to be recommended.
