Relativity and Geometry

by Roberto Torretti

Early in this century, it was shown that the new non-Newtonian physics — known as Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity — rested on a new, non-Euclidean geometry, which incorporated time and space into a unified "chronogeometric" structure. This high-level study elucidates the motivation and significance of the changes in physical geometry brought about by Einstein, in both the first and the second phase of Relativity.
After a discussion of Newtonian principles and 19th-century views on electrodynamics and the aether, the author offers illuminating expositions of Einstein's electrodynamics of moving bodies, Minkowski spacetime, Einstein's quest for a theory of gravity, gravitational geometry, the concept of simultaneity, time and causality and other topics. An important Appendix — designed to define spacetime curvature — considers differentiable manifolds, fiber bundles, linear connections and useful formulae.
Relativity continues to be a major focus of interest for physicists, mathematicians and philosophers of science. This highly regarded work offers them a rich, "historico-critical" exposition — emphasizing geometrical ideas — of the elements of the Special and General Theory of Relativity.

Genres: Physics

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Roberto Torretti, Premio Nacional de Humanidades 2011 y doctor honoris causa por la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, es profesor emérito de la Universidad Diego Portales y de la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Río Piedras, profesor titular de la Universidad de Chile, miembro de número del Institut International de Philosophie y de la Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences y miembro honorario de la Asociación de Filosofía e Historia de la Ciencia del Cono Sur.

Escritor y académico reconocido por sus contribuciones a la historia de la filosofía, muy especialmente a la de la física y las matemáticas, Torretti es autor de más de veinticinco libros y cientos de artículos especializados.

Reviews

[Alexandre Guay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Véritablement un classique!
Roberto Torretti analyse avec une grande finesse comment la relativité restreinte et la relativité générale s'articulent avec les différentes constructions géométriques disponibles. J'ai particulièrement apprécié l'insistance avec laquelle il insiste sur la notion du temps qui est souvent relativement négligée dans les autres ouvrages du même type. Tout philosophe qui veut sérieusement discuter du temps devrait lire et relire ce livre.