Special Relativity

TEXT:
Spacetime Physics
by Edwin F. Taylor and John Archibald Wheeler
New York, W. H. Freeman and Co., Second edition 1992
ISBN:0-7167-2327-1.
Phone orders: 1-800-288-2131
(also available for on-line purchase through Amazon)

This special relativity text appeared in the sixties, with a second edition in 1992. It emphasizes the invariants in special relativity, such as the "proper time" reading on a clock carried directly between two events and the invariant mass of a particle or of a system of particles. It contains a wealth of applications to current experiments. The careful definition of the limits of inertial frames sets the groundwork for the later introduction to general relativity. Associated software, described below, immerses the student actively in the strange world of the very fast.

For self study and those without access to the second edition:
download the first chapter of the 1965 first edition, with exercises and solutions

SOFTWARE:
Information on updated Special Relativity software will be posted in May 2008.