Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Space Time and Gravitation

Arthur Eddington - Space Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920)

Open Library direct link
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Freeman Dyson recently chose this as one of the best books on physics.  He said, "Eddington’s book was the main reason why Einstein was better understood and admired by the general public in Britain and America than he was in Germany. No comparably clear account of Einstein’s ideas existed in German."

As it turns out one of my favorite writers also recommends this - Rudy Rucker.  He wrote "One does not soon forget Eddington's pleasant style, relaxed, slightly humorous, but totally serious; engagĂ©, but never partisan."  (Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension, p124)

And other than physicists, Eddington's book appealed to philosophers, particularly British and including Bertrand Russell.

(If for any reason that link is dead the Dyson interview was in the April 16, 2015 New York Times.)