Overview
- Brings you the fast track to really understand the relationship between space and time
- Offers a tried-and-tested approach reflecting the author's 40 years of teaching experience
- Belongs to a multi-volume introduction to theoretical physics, in which one renowned textbook author covers the complete curriculum
- Offers detailed explanations of the solutions to numerous problems.
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Table of contents (2 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This concise textbook offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to special relativity, one of the core components of undergraduate physics courses. It follows on naturally from the previous volumes in this series, thus developing the relativistic expansion of classical mechanics and electrodynamics. The first part of the book introduces Lorentz transformations, time dilation, length contraction and Minkowski diagrams. More complex themes are covered in the second part of the book, which describes the four-dimensional covariant formulation for classical mechanics and electrodynamics, including discussion of Maxwell’s equations, the Lorentz force and the covariant Lagrangian formulation.
Ideally suited to undergraduate students with some grounding in classical mechanics and electrodynamics, the book is enhanced throughout with learning features such as boxed inserts and chapter summaries, with key mathematical derivations highlighted to aid understanding. The text is supported by numerous worked examples and end of chapter problem sets.
About the Theoretical Physics series
Translated from the renowned and highly successful German editions, the eight volumes of this series cover the complete core curriculum of theoretical physics at undergraduate level. Each volume is self-contained and provides all the material necessary for the individual course topic. Numerous problems with detailed solutions support a deeper understanding. Wolfgang Nolting is famous for his refined didactical style and has been referred to as the "German Feynman" in reviews.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Nolting is an emeritus professor of physics of the German Humboldt University in Berlin, whose research interests span solid state physics and magnetism. He has over 40 years of teaching experience at various institutions including the University of Münster, ETH Zürich, the University of Würzburg and the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain. His acclaimed German textbook series on Theoretical Physics has now attained the rank of a standard work in physics education.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Theoretical Physics 4
Book Subtitle: Special Theory of Relativity
Authors: Wolfgang Nolting
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44371-3
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-44370-6Published: 07 October 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-44371-3Published: 28 September 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 143
Number of Illustrations: 15 b/w illustrations
Topics: Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory, Mathematical Methods in Physics