Understanding Relativity: Origin and Impact of a Scientific Revolution

Goldberg, Stanley

ISBN 10: 081763150X / ISBN 13: 9780817631505

Published by Birkhauser Verlag, Boston, Basel, Stuttgart, 1984

About this Item

INSCRIBED. Light gray cloth, lettered in silver foil. Former owner's name stamp on upper front flyleaf, institutional stamp on lower main title. xvii,494 pp., illus. Foxing to top text block edge and slightly to fore-edge, otherwise nearly as issued. Inscribed by author on half-title, signed as "Stan," personalized, dated Apr. 1984. Dust jacket shows minor chipping/creasing along a portion of top rear edge, now in mylar. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Seller Inventory # 044450

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Understanding Relativity: Origin and Impact of a Scientific Revolution
• Publisher: Birkhauser Verlag, Boston, Basel, Stuttgart
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081763150X
• ISBN 13: 9780817631505
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Einstein
  • Science, Math, Technology, Astronomy

About this title

Synopsis

The central subject matter of this book is Einstein's special theory of relativiry. While it is a book that is written primarily for a lay audience this does not necessarily mean an audience not versed in the ways of doing science. Rather, this book is written for anyone wishing to consider the nature of the scientific enterprise: where ideas come from, how they become established and accepted, what the relationships are among theories, predictions, and measurements, or the relationship between ideas in a scientific theory and the values held to be important within the larger culture. Some readers will find it strange that I raise any of these issues. It is a common view in our culture that the status of knowledge within science is totally different from the status of knowledge in other areas of human endeavor. The word "science" stems from the Latin word meaning "to know" and indeed, knowledge which scientists acquire in their work is commonly held to be certain, unyielding, and absolute. Consider how we use the adjective "scientific. " There are investors and there are scientific investors. There are socialists and there are scientific socialists. There are exterminators and there are scientific exterminators. We all know how the modifier "scientific" inttudes in our daily life. It is the purpose of this book to challenge the belief that scientific knowledge is different from other kinds of knowledge.