Gravity from the Ground Up: An Introductory Guide to Gravity and General Relativity

by Bernard F. Schutz

This book provides an accessible introduction to astronomy and general relativity, aiming to explain the Universe, not just to describe it. Written by an expert in relativity who is known for his clearly-written advanced textbooks, the treatment uses only high-school level mathematics, supplemented by optional computer programs, to explain the laws of physics governing gravity from Galileo and Newton to Einstein.

Genres: Physics, Science, Nonfiction, Textbooks

490 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2003

Reviews

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schutz sets out to present an introductory text available to anyone with a basic math background. He covers many basic physics concepts through his exploration of gravity from simple Newtonian physics, to special and general relativity, to quantum mechanics. The first half of the book covers the Newtonian physics aspects of things, and manages to cover astronomy and seemingly unrelated things like some thermodynamics. In this I think he was successful. The second half, particularly when he attempts to introduce general relativity to the lay reader given basic algebra, becomes a bit bewildering and frustrating. I cannot be too harsh though because I appreciate the attempt. In fact despite getting a BS in physics I never really learned about general relativity and I was excited for the exposure. Unfortunately covering some concepts without the mathematical rigor necessary to see how the concepts are derived is for me at least an exploration in frustration.

However, with these caveats in mind and with a willingness to move beyond some fuzziness Schutz goes over some fascinating and cutting edge concepts including the nature of dark matter and dark energy, the inflationary model of the big bang and the quantum reasons for postulating it, zero point energy, Higgs fields, and finally quantum gravity and the implications of coming up with a theory for it.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a comprehensive book which sits somewhere between textbook and popular science book. Although a bit out of date, I think it would fit well in the library of a large range of people from non-professional science enthusiasts to trained scientists. I appreciated the fact that Schultz took the more technical discussions out of the main text and framed them as "investigations." When I first approached this book, I tried to do so comprehensively; reading each investigation as I came to it. I soon realized that there were just some topics I wasn't interested enough in to care very much about the details. So the second time I read the book I only read the investigations on the topics that interested me. This worked a lot better.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great book back in the early days (2002, when it was published.). The book relies on software which is no longer available, which makes it much less useful. Some of the software can be replaced by modern stuff, but you've really got to hunt for it. Aside from that, it's fairly well put together. I don't care for some of his language ("proved" when he should have used "shown", statements of fact that should be more couched, etc.) and there are a number of errors even in this last published edition.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow- hands down, without a doubt, the best book I have read about not only Gravity, but General and Special Relativity. This is NOT for a college Physics major, but is perfect for people who are not afraid of Algebra. This book goes on so many wonderful tangents and then ties things together. The math is basic and with a little effort, very approachable to non-mathematicians. I dislike books that try to explain physics without any math, and this book avoids the trap- without getting too complex for an amateur like me. Just the description of length contraction at high velocities with an example of going by a galaxy in 3 seconds, made so much sense and tied the change in clock speeds with change in length... and I had never heard it described that way- but it just clicked. The book is filled with enlightening examples one after another. If you want to understand a lot about the universe without getting into Calculus and advanced physics, this is perfect. This book goes into orbits, nuclear reactions, harmonics of sun, creation of elements, equivalence principle, the implications of the speed of light, space geometry-it's all here. Took me over a month to plow through and will likely reread many more times.

[Tue Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dependable guide to general relativity for those who have taken some introductory physics and some collegiate mathematics. It is suitable for self-study.