Mr Stephen Ernest Sutcliffe

Stephen E. Sutcliffe studied mathematics at New College, Oxford before becoming an aerodynamics engineer at British Aerospace, Warton, Lancashire. Whilst employed at BAe, he worked on the Tornado and Eurofighter projects. He later became a high-school mathematics teacher and also studied physics with the Open University. Now semi-retired, he lives a quiet life in Bournemouth with his wife and pet dog. Stephen has maintained a life-long interest in the foundations of mathematics and physics, particularly Einstein's theories. His new book 'Understanding General Relativity' (published for the first time in 2021) represents the culmination of a long-term quest to understand Einstein's theory. He has spent many years investigating the subject, especially its foundations. Eventually, Stephen decided to write his own introductory book. He hopes that readers struggling to understand the theory of General Relativity will find the book very helpful. The aim was to write a clear, thorough account of the foundations of GR which would be accessible to a wide range of readers - indeed the only prerequisite knowledge needed is basic calculus and some Newtonian mechanics. Stephen has found that many introductory books on General Relativity often leave many unanswered questions and seem unconvincing in various aspects. He hopes that his book gives an elementary, but convincing account of the core GR theory, together with some applications. Indeed, he has deliberately chosen his own way of explaining many of the core details in order to help students understand the subject. Stephen very much hopes that readers will benefit from his own struggles with the theory which can get very complicated at times. Writing a clear account of GR to himself, he eventually realised that others' might benefit from his own voyage through the subject. Indeed, the book also represents an enthusiast's tribute to Einstein's amazing theory.

The second edition of my book 'Understanding General Relativity' was published in April 2022. It contains three new chapters, including one on black holes. I have also taken the opportunity to carry out various improvements throughout the text, including the correction of some minor errors which remained in the original manuscript despite my best endeavours to eliminate them!

Note that, although the eBook version is a 'print replica' eBook, it nevertheless contains hyperlinks to aid navigation. All references to equations, sections, chapters, cited books etc. are hyperlinked. Clicking on a link will take you straight to the reference. Then pressing 'back' takes you straight back to your current point in the book. (Note that these hyperlink features are not enabled in the sample pages available for download.)

Stop Press: Check out my latest book 'Differential Geometry and the Derivation of the Kerr Metric' (published Feb. 2024)! In this new book I give a detailed derivation of the Kerr metric which models the spacetime in the vacuum surrounding a rotating black hole. The book also contains an accessible account of differential geometry as applied to general relativity, suitable for physics students. The new book follows on from my introductory book 'Understanding General Relativity', with an account of some more advanced methods, particularly their use in solving Einstein's field equation.

Errata for book 'Differential Geometry and the Derivation of the Kerr metric:

Page 7, equation (1.2.6). The right-hand side should read 'aXf + bXg'.

Page 116, equation (9.1.5). The superscripts on the right-hand side should be 'i' and 'j', not 'i' and 'i'.