What do you think?
Rate this book
Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity
The aim of this groundbreaking new book is to bring general relativity into the undergraduate curriculum and make this fundamental theory accessible to all physics majors. Using a "physics first" approach to the subject, renowned relativist James B. Hartle provides a fluent and accessible introduction that uses a minimum of new mathematics and is illustrated with a wealth of exciting applications. The emphasis is on the exciting phenomena of gravitational physics and the growing connection between theory and observation. The Global Positioning System, black holes, X-ray sources, pulsars, quasars, gravitational waves, the Big Bang, and the large scale structure of the universe are used to illustrate the widespread role of how general relativity describes a wealth of everyday and exotic phenomena.
608 pages, Hardcover
First published January 5, 2002
21 people are currently reading
480 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 19, 2010
Trying to teach undergrads general relativity is about as easy as teaching a puppy... general relativity. Hartle strikes a pretty good balance with this book, offering 30-page chapters with *gasp* only a half-dozen equations that focus on conveying high-level concepts as well as chapters fully devoted to tensors, covariant derivatives, and all the mathematical weapons one needs to predict the large-scale structure of the universe. Hartle also provides plenty of worked examples, which are really useful for understanding how to go about GR calculations (which are a new beast for most undergrads unfamiliar with tensor algebra).
When your subject matter includes black holes, wormholes, and space travel, it would be difficult not to make up examples that make a young physicist wriggle with glee, but Hartle does do an especially good job of providing engaging problems (e.g. about space pirates patrolling black hole horizons).
However, I too often felt like a child touring a farm and being hushed and rushed past the slaughterhouse; there always seemed to be something more complicated going on behind the scenes that Hartle wasn't telling me about. The book moved very (too?) slowly at first but halfway through the book, I felt like I had skipped a few sections. This uneasy feeling is perhaps expected on a first voyage through interstellar spacetime, but I'm eager for a less-nauseating return trip, during which I can spend more time appreciating the view.
When your subject matter includes black holes, wormholes, and space travel, it would be difficult not to make up examples that make a young physicist wriggle with glee, but Hartle does do an especially good job of providing engaging problems (e.g. about space pirates patrolling black hole horizons).
However, I too often felt like a child touring a farm and being hushed and rushed past the slaughterhouse; there always seemed to be something more complicated going on behind the scenes that Hartle wasn't telling me about. The book moved very (too?) slowly at first but halfway through the book, I felt like I had skipped a few sections. This uneasy feeling is perhaps expected on a first voyage through interstellar spacetime, but I'm eager for a less-nauseating return trip, during which I can spend more time appreciating the view.
June 17, 2012
Not many books move me to write a review, and even fewer textbooks.
Hartle's brilliant work is, however, an exception. The examples are appropriately set and lend insight. The order of the material is unconventional and mercifully so - no forest of 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' indices until about chapter 20! This means that the essential physics is brought out.
Perhaps the greatest recommendation comes from Kip Thorne. When I met him and talked about textbooks, he told me to avoid his own seminal work, and read this instead!
I'm glad that I did and recommend this wholeheartedly.
Hartle's brilliant work is, however, an exception. The examples are appropriately set and lend insight. The order of the material is unconventional and mercifully so - no forest of 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' indices until about chapter 20! This means that the essential physics is brought out.
Perhaps the greatest recommendation comes from Kip Thorne. When I met him and talked about textbooks, he told me to avoid his own seminal work, and read this instead!
I'm glad that I did and recommend this wholeheartedly.
Read
June 8, 2019A memorable journey. And a fruitful ending,
January 18, 2020
Double feeling. On the one hand, it is frustrating that you see the Einstein equation only up to chapter 23, but on the other hand, it is probably a better way to learn GR.
June 9, 2015
So, I've only actually read about 2/3 of this, as I used it as textbook and didn't cover all topics. We did use/cover Chapters 1 - 9, 12, 13, 17, 18, 22, with very light coverage of 20-21 (we really did 22 in more a descriptive mode, I'd say.)
That said, I survived an undergraduate intro to GR and... it wasn't that bad. It was hard, no doubt there, but the book was solid and helpful.
My one complaint is that there is a tendency to skip steps in examples; these are often mathematical steps that may seem obvious or even trivial, and are sometimes messy intermediate stages of calculus and algebra that someone probably thought of as only taking up valuable space. But: for a student, seeing the stuff for the first time, every step matters (I'd say, "of course, obviously," but maybe not...) Sometimes the minutiae of the simple algebra helps complete an explanation where a 6th re-reading of the same paragraph just won't.
Long winded for one complaint, can you tell I *just* finished the class? :)
Solid 4 stars.
That said, I survived an undergraduate intro to GR and... it wasn't that bad. It was hard, no doubt there, but the book was solid and helpful.
My one complaint is that there is a tendency to skip steps in examples; these are often mathematical steps that may seem obvious or even trivial, and are sometimes messy intermediate stages of calculus and algebra that someone probably thought of as only taking up valuable space. But: for a student, seeing the stuff for the first time, every step matters (I'd say, "of course, obviously," but maybe not...) Sometimes the minutiae of the simple algebra helps complete an explanation where a 6th re-reading of the same paragraph just won't.
Long winded for one complaint, can you tell I *just* finished the class? :)
Solid 4 stars.
January 29, 2019
Beautiful introduction to Einstein's theory of relativity. Be prepared for some hardcore math.
July 15, 2013
Very instructive, in my opinion the best book to start with general relativity on a undergraduate level.
Want to read
January 19, 2014leading up to the Big Bang Model of cosmology. Once you know this, you have the background to learn grand theories.
Want to read
January 27, 2019General relativity � for when you get serious
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.