Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory
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- Author：Leonard Susskind
- ISBN：0141985011
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Summary
The third volume in the bestselling physics series cracks open Einstein's special relativity and field theory
Physicist Leonard Susskind and data engineer Art Friedman are back。 This time， they introduce readers to Einstein's special relativity and Maxwell's classical field theory。 Using their typical brand of real math， enlightening drawings， and humor， Susskind and Friedman walk us through the complexities of waves， forces， and particles by exploring special relativity and electromagnetism。 It's a must-read for both devotees of the series and any armchair physicist who wants to improve their knowledge of physics' deepest truths。
Physicist Leonard Susskind and data engineer Art Friedman are back。 This time， they introduce readers to Einstein's special relativity and Maxwell's classical field theory。 Using their typical brand of real math， enlightening drawings， and humor， Susskind and Friedman walk us through the complexities of waves， forces， and particles by exploring special relativity and electromagnetism。 It's a must-read for both devotees of the series and any armchair physicist who wants to improve their knowledge of physics' deepest truths。
Reviews
Don Durack
，
Useful addition to the terrific lectures available online。
Bernardo
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This is the third Volume in The Theoretical Minimum book series。 The previous Volume was about quantum mechanics。 This one goes back to classical physics， introducing both special relativity and classical field theory， while showing how these are deeply connected。When I learned electromagnetism， in the engineering course I took years ago， Maxwell’s equations were only briefly mentioned。 We never derived Maxwell’s equations so this was the first time I saw their derivation， which was brilliant。 I This is the third Volume in The Theoretical Minimum book series。 The previous Volume was about quantum mechanics。 This one goes back to classical physics， introducing both special relativity and classical field theory， while showing how these are deeply connected。When I learned electromagnetism， in the engineering course I took years ago， Maxwell’s equations were only briefly mentioned。 We never derived Maxwell’s equations so this was the first time I saw their derivation， which was brilliant。 I also learned some special relativity in engineering school， though from a simplified point of view。 The sections on special relativity were great， but my favourite lectures from this Volume were actually the ones related to classical field theory， even if they were much more demanding mathematically。In one of my favourite sections of the whole book， Susskind points out the four fundamental principles underlying all of physics。 These are the action principle， locality， Lorentz invariance and gauge invariance。 He then explains the ideas， before using them mathematically to produce results。 Another highlight was that many of the different concepts we previously learned， such as the action principle， Lagrangian， Euler-Lagrange equation， Hamiltonian and Noether’s theorem， among others， play a major role in classical field theory。 It all comes together in the end。This is my favourite book in the series。 It is better edited and I also believe the authors have learned with the previous Volumes and improved upon their work。 The explanations are even better this time around and there are many reviewing sections reminding the readers of concepts which were introduced earlier in the book。 After reading the last section of the book on the energy-momentum tensor， and how it’s related to general relativity， I’m really looking forward to reading the next book。 Three years have gone by since this book was released and I’m really hoping Volume 4 will come out soon。 I can’t wait for general relativity。Note: I would also like to mention the opening sections in each lecture， which feature Art and Lenny （both authors） having a relaxed conversation。 These were just great fun and I’ve come to enjoy them each time more as the series goes on。 As Groucho himself might have said: “Humor is reason gone mad”。 。。。more
Jakob
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This was the perfect supplemental read to my undergrad course in electrodynamics。 Seeing Maxwells equations derived from fundamental principles was astoundingly satisfactory as apposed to the more dry， historical approach that my textbook takes。 Considering what this books entails， it was incredibly easy to follow and Susskind's guiding words left me wanting only more after the ending recipe to faking a magnetic monopole。 This was the perfect supplemental read to my undergrad course in electrodynamics。 Seeing Maxwells equations derived from fundamental principles was astoundingly satisfactory as apposed to the more dry， historical approach that my textbook takes。 Considering what this books entails， it was incredibly easy to follow and Susskind's guiding words left me wanting only more after the ending recipe to faking a magnetic monopole。 。。。more
Jose Vila-Chã
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Very accessible， but still interesting！
Manuel Antão
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If you're into stuff like this， you can read the full review。Hall Effect Thruster: "Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory: The Theoretical Minimum" by Leonard Susskind， Art FriedmanSceptic: “Generally， anything that we have accelerated to near the speed of light was externally accelerated using external magnetic force。 A space craft would be accelerated by either firing mass out opposite the he directing for travel or by some use of internal force。 What I have not seen demonstrated is th If you're into stuff like this， you can read the full review。Hall Effect Thruster: "Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory: The Theoretical Minimum" by Leonard Susskind， Art FriedmanSceptic: “Generally， anything that we have accelerated to near the speed of light was externally accelerated using external magnetic force。 A space craft would be accelerated by either firing mass out opposite the he directing for travel or by some use of internal force。 What I have not seen demonstrated is the fact that the increased mass is relative。 If theoretically， you have enough fuel to accelerate to the speed of light， the matter that you are carrying would be increasing at the same rate as the craft。 The pilot would see no difference and would simply keep running the ion engine or firing fuel out the back and keep accelerating。 Externally， the shipping would be flattening to nothing and becoming increasingly massive。 At the speed of light when the object becomes impossibly nonexistent， the mass would be impossibly infinite， but to the pilot， nothing has changed。 I am sure someone can explain why this is impossible and how suddenly having more ship to push and more fuel to push it is a problem。 Please do。” 。。。more
Julian Keeley
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It's too easy to get lost in the mathematics and to lose the bigger picture。 More description of what the maths leads to would help those of us who are not fluent in advanced mathematics。 It's too easy to get lost in the mathematics and to lose the bigger picture。 More description of what the maths leads to would help those of us who are not fluent in advanced mathematics。 。。。more
AKHIL TP4
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I finally understood the Special Theory of Relativity！ It's a must-read book for physics lovers。 Apart from the Special Theory of Relativity， the authors take a different approach to building the classical field theory， which is stemmed from the Action Principle。 And it's fantastic。 Loved It！ The book is enriched by witty conversations along with characterizing the pivotal figures in the history of Physics。 However， it would be ungrateful if I don't mention Groucho， our best friend。 I finally understood the Special Theory of Relativity！ It's a must-read book for physics lovers。 Apart from the Special Theory of Relativity， the authors take a different approach to building the classical field theory， which is stemmed from the Action Principle。 And it's fantastic。 Loved It！ The book is enriched by witty conversations along with characterizing the pivotal figures in the history of Physics。 However， it would be ungrateful if I don't mention Groucho， our best friend。 。。。more
Jakob
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Shout out groucho
Federico Lebron
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Super fun read。 If you want to understand the basics of field theory， including the mathematics behind it， with no hoodwinking， this is a great source。Fortunately， a child of five could _not_ understand it， and it carries out the mathematics through with enough rigor for my taste。 As a computer scientist， some of the notational conventions were hard to follow， but I could overlook them in most of the book。 I'm very happy to have read this。 It gave me better idea of how Lagrangian mechanics and N Super fun read。 If you want to understand the basics of field theory， including the mathematics behind it， with no hoodwinking， this is a great source。Fortunately， a child of five could _not_ understand it， and it carries out the mathematics through with enough rigor for my taste。 As a computer scientist， some of the notational conventions were hard to follow， but I could overlook them in most of the book。 I'm very happy to have read this。 It gave me better idea of how Lagrangian mechanics and Noether's theorem form the basis of field theory。I strongly suggest going through the first book in the series， on classical mechanics， before tackling this one。 At several points the book harkens back to ideas mentioned there。 。。。more
Nathan Velson
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The next installment of The Theoretical Minimum takes the fundamental principles outlined in the first book （least action， Lagrangian， Hamiltonian， symmetries and invariance， etc。） and applies them to special relativity and electromagnetism。 Again， topics that I was taught in undergrad physics classes， but never with the deeper understanding of the interconnectedness that this book provides。 I had always kind-of thought special relativity was a bit of a novelty and not really related to other fi The next installment of The Theoretical Minimum takes the fundamental principles outlined in the first book （least action， Lagrangian， Hamiltonian， symmetries and invariance， etc。） and applies them to special relativity and electromagnetism。 Again， topics that I was taught in undergrad physics classes， but never with the deeper understanding of the interconnectedness that this book provides。 I had always kind-of thought special relativity was a bit of a novelty and not really related to other fields of physics， now I understand more the intimate relation with electromagnetic field theory。 What can I say， this series is a great resource for those with some technical background who want to know more。 Looking forward to when the fourth book comes out。 。。。more
Tassos
，
I got this book because I really loved the first two of the series， but also because I am really intrigued about the topic of relativity。 And Lenny and Art did not let me down！ This is an amazing journey to the land of relativity and to field theory。Initially I thought that the field theory part will be minor， but it really covers almost two thirds of the book。 When I first realised， I was a bit disappointed， but now I realise that the authors added one more topic in my interest list！This is my I got this book because I really loved the first two of the series， but also because I am really intrigued about the topic of relativity。 And Lenny and Art did not let me down！ This is an amazing journey to the land of relativity and to field theory。Initially I thought that the field theory part will be minor， but it really covers almost two thirds of the book。 When I first realised， I was a bit disappointed， but now I realise that the authors added one more topic in my interest list！This is my review。 If you don't like it， I can write another one :） 。。。more
Susmit Islam
，
Most texts on electromagnetism start out historically， i。e。， teaching you the experimentally derived Coulomb's law， Ampere-Maxwell law， Gauss' law etc。 Then they proceed to the Maxwell equations， and then they talk about how to solve the equations in different （manually solvable） situations。 Then they talk about special relativity， Lorentz invariance， and stuff like that。 This， I think， is a good way to learn this subject - for beginners。 However， this book takes a sort of unorthodox approach。 I Most texts on electromagnetism start out historically， i。e。， teaching you the experimentally derived Coulomb's law， Ampere-Maxwell law， Gauss' law etc。 Then they proceed to the Maxwell equations， and then they talk about how to solve the equations in different （manually solvable） situations。 Then they talk about special relativity， Lorentz invariance， and stuff like that。 This， I think， is a good way to learn this subject - for beginners。 However， this book takes a sort of unorthodox approach。 It starts out with special relativity （SR）， then uses the principle of least action coupled with Lorentz invariance， to derive Maxwell's equations completely theoretically。 I loved this approach very much， since this shows the sheer beauty and elegance of symmetries and the principle of least action。 I probably wouldn't recommend it to a beginner because of the book's higher mathematical sophistication compared to introductory EM books。 But I also think that a beginner （with， of course， a course of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics under his/her belt） should be able to study this book without major problems。 The explanations are clear enough， so， yeah。 Maybe to the disappointment of some， the star of this book is NOT Maxwell's equations。 You won't get much of the applications of the equations here。 They're just byproducts of studying classical fields。 I don't think that's a problem， since the title of the book doesn't contain anything about electromagnetism。 The protagonist here is classical field theory。 Something which you need to study if you want to study the cornerstones of modern physics - General Relativity （GR）， and Quantum Field Theory （QFT）。 If you're interested to tackle GR and/or QFT， you should give this one a read before jumping in。Oh， and one last thing。 All hail Groucho！ 。。。more
Carlo Jacobs
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Absolutely amazing。
WarpDrive
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This is the third book of the author's famous series “The Theoretical Minimum” - and probably， in my personal opinion， the finest of the three in terms of conceptual lucidity， clarity， approachability， and conciseness。 Reading it has been a thoroughly pleasant experience。 The main subjects of this book are special relativity and classical field theory， and this book is very successful in treating both subjects at a good level of detail， requiring， as a pre-requisite， only undergraduate knowledge This is the third book of the author's famous series “The Theoretical Minimum” - and probably， in my personal opinion， the finest of the three in terms of conceptual lucidity， clarity， approachability， and conciseness。 Reading it has been a thoroughly pleasant experience。 The main subjects of this book are special relativity and classical field theory， and this book is very successful in treating both subjects at a good level of detail， requiring， as a pre-requisite， only undergraduate knowledge （if you are familiar with multivariate calculus and linear algebra， and you have knowledge of the principle of stationary action， you should be OK）: I must point out though that， whilst there are many books on special relativity （in some cases exploring the subject at a deeper level）， the biggest section of the book， dedicated to classical field theory （with a focus on EM and relativistic fields） is where the author has been most successful， and the part which I greatly enjoyed。As the author correctly stated， classical field theory is a fundamental part of physics， as it ties together electromagnetism， classical mechanics and special relativity。 It also provides a framework for studying any fields （such as hydrodynamics， for example）， and most importantly it is a crucial prerequisite for the study of quantum field theory in particular， but also does help with the approach to general relativity。 I wished I had a better confidence in this field before I embarked on the detailed study of quantum field theory and general relativity – it would have definitely streamlined the process and reduced the gradient of my learning curve。Coming back to this book， I particularly enjoyed how the author manages to tie together and cross-reference， in a coherent whole， all the elements treated in his book。 I particularly enjoyed the absolutely brilliant derivation of Maxwell's inhomogeneous equations from a stationary action principle， and the equally brilliant treatment of the Maxwell equations in tensorial form。Concepts such as gauge invariance， the procedure for the construction of the appropriate Lagrangian for relativistic fields， the various continuity equations， and the Poynting vector， are all explained with precision， clarity and conciseness。 The only （minor） issues are in relation to the occasional slightly cavalier attitude of the author in relation to mathematical precision （which， to be fair， is a more general issue with a few physicists， whose abuse of mathematical accuracy and notation can occasionally reach irksome levels）: for example， the Dirac Delta is NOT a function， but a distribution – you may define it as a functional or， if you wish， as the result of a limiting process of a specific sequence of functions。 But， again， it is not a function （to be fair， while the author keeps calling it a function， he does say in one place that "it is not an ordinary function"）。 There are also a couple of minor instances where the author gets slightly confused with the interplay of co-variant and contra-variant indices， a couple of minor typos， and a couple of instances where there is a bit too much hand-waving， but nothing serious at all。 Also， the author definition of tensors is good， and more than adequate for the subjects treated， but not the best I have ever found， to be perfectly honest。 Overall， it is a brilliant book， extremely easy to read， very informative， and highly recommended to all readers interested in a reasonably detailed but highly accessible introduction to SR， but especially to classical field theory and electromagnetism。 The author has successfully positioned his teaching and publications in the poorly covered area between the more specialist publications for practitioners， and the typical popular science books; he definitely deserves praise for this， even when his efforts might not have consistently been， in the past， as fruitful as in this instance。 Science and rational thinking have recently come under under sustained attack， especially in Trump's America， and anything that can enable （or at least facilitate） the diffusion of the scientific culture and perspective is greatly needed。 4。5 stars， rounded up to 5。PS: there is also a series of lectures freely available online （https://theoreticalminimum。com/course。。。） that covers a substantial part of the items developed in the book。 However， the latter is of better quality and it does cover more ground。 I am really happy that I purchased it。 。。。more
Saurabh
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This book is terrible。 I am mostly done with the special relativity chapter and instead of teaching me anything it has confused me to the point that I lost knowledge I previously had！ Why are we jumping between dimensionless and dimensional quantities without changing symbols？ Why do we need dimensionless quantities at all; is dividing by c difficult to understand or just typographically expensive？ Re Lorentz contraction， why is he saying OP is shorter than OQ when I can see it is longer？ How ca This book is terrible。 I am mostly done with the special relativity chapter and instead of teaching me anything it has confused me to the point that I lost knowledge I previously had！ Why are we jumping between dimensionless and dimensional quantities without changing symbols？ Why do we need dimensionless quantities at all; is dividing by c difficult to understand or just typographically expensive？ Re Lorentz contraction， why is he saying OP is shorter than OQ when I can see it is longer？ How can he make the pole in barn paradox more confusing and end it without giving the answer？ What explains the high rating for this awful mess？ 。。。more
Tony Zito
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Susskind does an amazing job of helping me overcome my pedestrian physics education。 Can't do without him。 Susskind does an amazing job of helping me overcome my pedestrian physics education。 Can't do without him。 。。。more
Iaroslav
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Great book to dive into the Special Relativity theory from the beginner-mathematician perspective！But you will need to do all the of exercises to grasp everything。 As for an advanced math student， this book has a lot of words - I wanted sometimes more math and formulas - a more formal way， you know :） But nevertheless - this book was made to popularize science and it is doing it the right way！
Robert Mason
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Truly man's best friend outside of a dog Truly man's best friend outside of a dog 。。。more
Sebastian
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Where do I even begin reviewing this absolutely marvelous treasure of a series？ These books are what I have been looking for for the past couple of decades， and they just keep on “hitting the spot” with each new installment; just as I was getting antsy about not understanding what a tensor is， making vague plans about finding a good tutorial or book of some kind， along comes Susskind and explains it in nine pages。 And then， just as I was thinking “wow， that was hardcore”， he covers gauge symmetr Where do I even begin reviewing this absolutely marvelous treasure of a series？ These books are what I have been looking for for the past couple of decades， and they just keep on “hitting the spot” with each new installment; just as I was getting antsy about not understanding what a tensor is， making vague plans about finding a good tutorial or book of some kind， along comes Susskind and explains it in nine pages。 And then， just as I was thinking “wow， that was hardcore”， he covers gauge symmetry， a notoriously slippery concept to explain， in another nine。 Well， nine pages of heavy lifting， based on hundreds of preceding pages， but he bloody goes and does it to the point where my understanding of high-level physics concepts blossoms further with each new chapter。 Yes， occasionally these books are really heavy lifting， often in unexpected areas （who would have thought that of the two topics in the title the innocuous-sounding “classical field theory” would be the real mind-bender）， but coupled with the video lectures they are precisely the mind-opening magic medicine that allows me to understand actual real “equations and all” higher level physics （something I am more or less decent at） without necessarily requiring me to do any actual physics or math （something I seriously suck at）。The only problem now is the impending long wait for the next book about （fingers crossed） the general theory of relativity。 。。。more
Michiel
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Love this series！ Personally， I found the topic of this book a bit less interesting than the previous two （classical mechanics and quantum） but it does a splendid job linking time， space， energy and light！ Looking forward to the next one！
Christian
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Not as good as the second book， but still a very nice book for those who want to learn some physics for fun without giving up on the math。 Some sections on classical field theory got a bit boring; it felt like the same repeated derivations based on Euler-Lagrange equations for a bunch of slightly-varied Lagrangians。 I think those parts could have used a bit more of an overview with motivation of where it is all going/why we care about deriving all these variants。
Yassine Alouini
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This is one of the best physics books I have read these recent years。 I have studied these subjects at grad school but the way in which the different subjects were introduced here is much better。 Also， it was very easy to follow despite the many years without practicing and the technical details weren't all over the place （that doesn't mean there aren't any）。I highly recommend it。 Waiting for the GR one to come。 ;） This is one of the best physics books I have read these recent years。 I have studied these subjects at grad school but the way in which the different subjects were introduced here is much better。 Also， it was very easy to follow despite the many years without practicing and the technical details weren't all over the place （that doesn't mean there aren't any）。I highly recommend it。 Waiting for the GR one to come。 ;） 。。。more
Myat Thura Aung
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Perhaps the most challenging book of the theoretical minimum series so far。 The exposition of special relativity is the most lucide I've read so far tho。 But I had to drudge through the classical field theory。 Though I understand it piece by piece， it's a bit difficult to pull all the pieces together， especially because I can't remember the load of information that it's offering。 Well， can't say it's the book's fault since I'm the one who's cramming。 Perhaps the most challenging book of the theoretical minimum series so far。 The exposition of special relativity is the most lucide I've read so far tho。 But I had to drudge through the classical field theory。 Though I understand it piece by piece， it's a bit difficult to pull all the pieces together， especially because I can't remember the load of information that it's offering。 Well， can't say it's the book's fault since I'm the one who's cramming。 。。。more
James F
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I like the idea of the theoretical minimum books; they are something more than popularizations， something less than textbooks， and promise to teach the math necessary for a real understanding of the science as it is needed。 This is the third book; it follows directly on what was presented in the first book on classical physics， and I'm not sure why Susskind （the principal author） decided to separate the two by the book on quantum theory， which is based on different ideas and different math。 Unfo I like the idea of the theoretical minimum books; they are something more than popularizations， something less than textbooks， and promise to teach the math necessary for a real understanding of the science as it is needed。 This is the third book; it follows directly on what was presented in the first book on classical physics， and I'm not sure why Susskind （the principal author） decided to separate the two by the book on quantum theory， which is based on different ideas and different math。 Unfortunately， I read the first book more than a year ago， and the wait for this to come out and be purchased at the library meant that my memory was somewhat vague on what I had learned in that， especially since my physics courses in college were not only long ago but didn't even mention Lagrangians and least action which are the basis of Susskind's approach。 I would suggest that the reader who， like me， has never learned this material in school or had courses in vector and tensor calculus should read volumes one and three right after one another and then go back to volume two （or perhaps wait for volume four on general relativity which probably also follows on one and three rather than on the second volume）。The present book is in two parts。 The first part， on special relativity， seemed rather simple， perhaps because the ideas were familiar to me from many more popular accounts。 The second part， on classical field theory （centering on Maxwell's equations） was much more difficult; this is where the Lagrangians and vector calculus kicked in。 Some of the difficulty undoubtedly was due to the shortcomings of my mathematical background， although I did minor in math in college back in the dark ages， but some I would have to put on the authors， who made it more confusing than necessary。 The most annoying feature of the book was that literally almost every chapter introduced a new system of notation -- not for new concepts， but for the same equations。 The authors use at least six different ways of writing the same vectors， and at least four different notations for partial derivatives。 It was very frustrating to have to learn the substance of the equations simultaneously with new formal ways of writing them， and especially to spend ten minutes puzzling over what an unfamiliar-looking equation was actually saying only to realize that it was the same equation that was explained in a previous chapter using a different notation。 I think just from a paedagogical standpoint it would have made more sense if the authors had chosen one （fairly expansive） notation and stuck with it， explaining the more condensed notations at the end in an appendix after I had learned what the equations actually meant。 I know pencils are expensive when you're saving up for a new supercollider， but still。 。 。Despite this， I was surprised at how much of the book I understood; essentially almost everything except the last chapter， which （as in most math books based on courses or lectures） sped up to squeeze in everything the authors wanted to cover before the class ended。 This was what happened with my college calculus course， which covered Gauss's theorem and Stokes theorem on the last day -- perhaps the best thing I got out of this book was finally understanding what those two theorems were about。 I'm not sure that the book would really be totally understandable to someone with just a high school calculus background， as the authors suggest， but it certainly comes closer than say Penrose's Road to Reality which made the same claim and in fact assumed a knowledge of complex analysis。 This series may not be the absolute beginner's choice， but it comes as close as any I've found so far。 。。。more
Chandra Prakash
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It is a quite good book， earlier chapters on special Relativity and later chapeters on use of field theory in Electromagnetism was awesome but this book had me lost in between chapters on field theory
Molino
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Hugely educational and interesting as usual， within and without the boundary of the dog。
William Schram
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With the third installment of The Theoretical Minimum， it seems that Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman have found their respective stride。 This book covers Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory as the title suggests， and as the context of the series suggests it covers the subjects in an engaging manner meant for the common man。 Of course， Susskind does suggest that you should have a small backing in Calculus and Linear Algebra to make it go more smoothly but the book is still entertainin With the third installment of The Theoretical Minimum， it seems that Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman have found their respective stride。 This book covers Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory as the title suggests， and as the context of the series suggests it covers the subjects in an engaging manner meant for the common man。 Of course， Susskind does suggest that you should have a small backing in Calculus and Linear Algebra to make it go more smoothly but the book is still entertaining nonetheless。Since this is the third book in the series， Susskind suggests that you go and take a peek at the section on Hamiltonians and Lagrangians from the first book and brush up on that。 Once you have done that， Professor Susskind explains the idea of relativistic motion in a way that most should be able to understand。 For example， if you go into space and apply a constant amount of force to your body， you should be able to accelerate to a velocity faster than that of light！ To that incredibly wrong statement， Professor Susskind has an answer。 Generally， if you accelerate to a velocity that is an appreciable fraction of c， you will also accumulate mass and be forced to use more force。In any case， the book contains 11 chapters which are called Lectures in this case。 We get to build Lagrangians and apply them to fields and do all sorts of interesting things with advanced mathematics。 The book is also funny in the opening portions of the chapters。 So with all that， I give this book a 5 out of 5。PS， I also liked the Groucho reference。 。。。more
Ryan Pennell
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This is a really great book。 This series is a great introduction to modern physics and this book did not let me down。 I highly suggest anyone that is going to try to read Jackson they should take the time to read this first。 I personally think the section on tensors is one of the best explanations of the subjects I have seen。
Galen Weitkamp
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