Einstein’s Space-Time: An Introduction to Special and General Relativity – Rafael Ferraro

Review“This is an extraordinarily thorough and compact primer on special and general relativity written and translated from the Spanish by astrophysicist Ferraro (Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics, Universidad de Buenos Aires). It is a remarkable resource for intermediate and advanced undergraduates, as it introduces the more difficult mathematics with a minimum of formalism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” (P. D. Skiff, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (5), January, 2008)

Book Description
This is a textbook addressed to students in Physics and other people interested in Relativity and History of Physics. The book contains a complete account of Special Relativity that begins with the historical analysis of the reasons that led to a change in our manner of regarding the space and time. The first chapters are aimed to afford a deep understanding of the relativistic spacetime and its consequences for Dynamics. The chapter about covariant formulation includes the concepts of volume and hypersurfaces in manifolds, energy-momentum tensor of a fluid, etc., and prepares the language for General Relativity. The last two chapters are devoted to introduce General Relativity and Cosmology in a modern approach connected with the latest discoveries in these areas.