Gravitation (Physics Series) |  | Authors: Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler, John Wheeler, Kip Thorne
Publisher: W. H. Freeman
Category: Book
Buy Used: $72.99
as of 9/9/2010 13:22 CDT details
New (19) Used (35) from $72.99
Seller: Authentic Deals
Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 69221
Media: Paperback
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 1215
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.7
Dimensions (in): 10 x 7.9 x 2.3
ISBN: 0716703440
Dewey Decimal Number: 531.14
EAN: 9780716703440
ASIN: 0716703440
Publication Date: September 15, 1973
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This landmark text offers a rigorous full-year graduate level course on gravitation physics, teaching students to:
• Grasp the laws of physics in flat spacetime
• Predict orders of magnitude
• Calculate using the principal tools of modern geometry
• Predict all levels of precision
• Understand Einstein's geometric framework for physics
• Explore applications, including pulsars and neutron stars, cosmology, the Schwarzschild geometry and gravitational collapse, and gravitational waves
• Probe experimental tests of Einstein's theory
• Tackle advanced topics such as superspace and quantum geometrodynamics
The book offers a unique, alternating two-track pathway through the subject:
• In many chapters, material focusing on basic physical ideas is designated as
Track 1. These sections together make an appropriate one-term advanced/graduate level course (mathematical prerequisites: vector analysis and simple partial-differential equations). The book is printed to make it easy for readers to identify these sections.
• The remaining Track 2 material provides a wealth of advanced topics instructors can draw from to flesh out a two-term course, with Track 1 sections serving as prerequisites.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 41
 Excellent introduction, good overview on applications October 10, 2001
Dr. Alexander Mircescu (Muenchen Germany)
125 out of 127 found this review helpful
This book can be divided into three logical parts. The first part includes an overview of 4 dimensional physics (spacetime physics, chapter 1), an introduction to special relativity (physics in flat spacetime, chapters 2 to 7), an introduction to the tensor calculus (the mathematics of curved spacetime, chapters 8 to 15) and describes in detail Einstein's general theory of relativity (Einstein's geometric theory of relativity, chapters 16 to 22).
This first part is the best introduction to the theory of relativity I have ever read. The mathematics is introduced in a very comprehensive manner, there are lots of exercises where the reader can get used to the tensor calculus. The physical explanations are just brilliant and what is more important general relativity is introduced in the manner Einstein itself viewed it: as a geometric representation of gravity! Other books on this subject formulate general relativity only algebraically (like quantum theory) but this hides the importance of the idea that all gravitational effects can be extracted from the geometry of spacetime. The algebraic formulation may be regarded as more modern by some authors, it must be said however that no algebraic formulation managed to give more physical insight. The algebraic treatment tries to unify the view of general relativity and quantum field theory, but the physical discrepancies between the two theories remain unsolved.
The second part starts with the application of general relativity to stars (stars and relativity, chapters 23 to 26), goes on to the universe (the universe, chapters 27-30) and to black holes (gravitational collapse and black holes, chapters 31 to 34), and describes finally gravitational waves (gravitational waves, chapters 35 to 37) and experimental methods (experimental tests of general relativity, chapters 38 to 40).
This second part is a good overview, but many details of the computations of the applications are not shown. For the readers interrested in the details the two volume book by Zel'dovich and Novikov "Stars and Relativity"/"The Structure and Evolution of the Universe" is much better (but also much longer).
The third part finally describes the frontiers of general relativity (frontiers, chapters 41 to 44). Like part two it gives a good overview not showing many computational details.
Complete and excellent coverage April 17, 2006
Dean Welch
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
Gravitation gives a wonderful presentation of general relativity and the mathematics, primarily differential geometry, needed to understand it. Virtually every topic in classical general relativity is well covered. This book has so much to offer it's only possible to give a subjective view of the highlights and things that make the book unique.
It has a very good introduction to special relativity. This not only helps the reader understand special relativity, but it also gives practice with some of the mathematics needed for general relativity. I don't think many (any?) advanced general relativity books cover special relativity this thoroughly. One thing of special note is that there is a chapter devoted to special relativity and accelerated observers. The reason I think this is important is that it's a fairly common misconception that general relativity is needed to deal with acceleration, I wish more books had chapters like this.
The use of electromagnetism to illustrate the use of tensors is fairly extensive. This not only helps readers learn tensor analysis, but will also help them understand electromagnetism better.
Although black holes are covered in virtually every book on general relativity, the discussion here is much more thorough than usual. The material on the dynamics of the Schwarzschild solution is not a perspective most books give. In addition there is very nice coverage of stellar structure.
The exercises are great.
There is a lot of material on experimental general relativity.
The historical anecdotes are interesting.
There are an above average number of illuminating diagrams
The chapter on the Bianchi identities is exceptional, it also hints to the study of homology.
The initial-value problem is also exceptional.
Regge calculus is covered, an important topic in numerical relativity that is usually neglected.
The chapter on superspace is quite interesting. No, superspace in this sense doesn't have anything to do with supersymmetry. It's the space of solutions to general relativity, among other things this is important for quantum cosmology.
Pretty much any topic in general relativity one would be interested in has excellent coverage, with the possible exception of quantum gravity which only has a small amount of material.
The downsides? While I appreciate the coordinate fee notation, it's not that easy to use when working the exercises. I prefer the use of abstract index notation, at least for working problems with a pen and paper. Some of the diagrams early in the book might be a little confusing to readers without prior knowledge of differential geometry. This isn't really a downside, but this is a fairly advanced book and it might not be an ideal first book on general relativity (Schutz's book provides an excellent introduction and has a similar approach to this book).
In short, this is an exceptional book. Anybody with serious interest in learning general relativity would do well to study it.
Best textbook I've ever seen -- in ANY subject! April 28, 1999
31 out of 33 found this review helpful
Yes, it's so massive you can measure it's gravitational field. Yes, people refer to it as "the phonebook." But all joking aside, as an undergraduate who is very curious about general relativity, I must say that this textbook has done more for me than any other. I've gotten occational help from other books (Wald, Weinberg, etc.) but this is the one that I really LERN from. There's more physical insight in this book than any I've yet seen, and the reading is truly enjoyable. One great thing is the treatment of tensors. I knew next to nothing about tensors coming into the book, but the book assumes very little initial knowledge and teaches you the needed math as you go along. This book is truly a model for anyone who wants to write a textbook. Nothing I've seen even comes close.
This is a book of IDEAS January 19, 1999
33 out of 36 found this review helpful
This volume is absolutely neccesary for any serious student of gravitational physics. Although their are sections suitable for an upper division undergrad, this is a tome for the graduate student in Physics. The mathematical expertise required for the advanced Track-2 portions of the book are predominently graduate level and above. However, it is those very sections where the exotic topics of black-hole thermodynamics and quantum cosmology are addressed in all their splendor. There are areas of interest to students of math such as the introduction of differential forms and tensor index-slinging. All students of Physics should have at least cracked the cover of this book once before they receive their B.Sci. This is a thorough if dated (1975) exposition that deserves a place along side Peeble's 'COSMOLOGY' and Dirac's 'QUANTUM MECHANICS' in a list of 'must have' volumes for any Physicist (even those far removed from general relativity). With the possible exception of S. Hawkings, Misner, Thorne and Wheeler show their collective expertise on GTR with rigor and style. Even the typsetting, diagrams and the liberal use of explanitory boxes all serve to give the work a feel of completion. It is no wonder that in the physics literature it is often cited simply as MTW.
The Bible of gravitational physics January 20, 2002
Dr. Lee D. Carlson (Baltimore, Maryland USA)
43 out of 49 found this review helpful
By size and content, this book ranks as one of the largest in physics . Not only does it give an excellent discussion of all of the concepts in gravitational physics, but it gives clear presentations of the relevant mathematics, not hesitating at all to employ useful diagrams and pictures. Truly a classic, it is a work that is sure to be read by future generations of students in gravitational physics. I can still remember the excitement I felt when picking the book up for the first time. The authors are giants in the field, and it is great that they chose to take the time to write such an excellent book. It is readily apparent that they care a great deal about what the reader will take away after reading such a large book, as the presentation is always crystal clear and a great joy to read. Space prohibits a thorough review, so I will instead highlight the parts of the book that I found particularly exceptional: 1. The example of how coordinate singularities arise: the "cells of the egg crate" squashed to zero volume. 2. The beautiful illustration of the Roll-Krotkov-Dicke experiment. 3. The "physics demo" of a local inertial frame of reference (it is not very difficult to construct this demonstration for actual use in a classroom). 4. The presentation of a 2-form as a honeycomb of tubes with a sense of circulation. Such an explanation is lacking in the general mathematical literature. 5. The flying ring demonstration illustrating Faraday stresses. This demonstration is done very often in physics classes, and is simple to set up. 6. The excellent discussion (with illustrations) of the covariant derivative and the Schild ladder construction. 7. The presentation of parallel transport around a closed curve. 8. The treatment of Riemann normal coordinates. These are typically presented in a purely formal way in most texts on general relativity, ignoring their status as providing a local inertial frame in curved spacetime. 9. The (philosophical) discussion on the principal of general covariance in the context of Newtonian gravity in tensorial form. 10. The illustration, with accompanying discussion, on a situation where two events can be connected by more than one geodesic. The authors mention the relation of this example to the Morse theory of critical points. 11. The discussion of the Bianchi identities and the topological result on the boundary of a boundary being empty. 12. The discussion on the gravity gradiometer. 13. The exceptional discussion on six routes to the Einstein field equation. 14. The variational principle and the initial value problem in the Einstein equation. 15. The connection between the Gauss-Weingarten equations and extrinsic curvature. 16. The ADm formulation of the dynamics of geometry. 17. The discussion on Mach's principle. 18. The radial oscillations of a Newtonian star. 19. The Hamilton-Jacobi description of motion and its employment in analyzing the central force problem. 20. The effect of the value of the cosmological constant on cosmological models and evolution of the universe. 21. The cosmological redshift and its explanation via the expansion of the universe. 22. The mathematics of the Mixmaster cosmology. 23. The dynamics of the Schwarzschild geometry. 24. The discussion on the global properties of spacetime and singularity theorems. 25. The short biographies of Hawking and Penrose. 26. The quadrupole nature of gravitational radiation. 27. The experimental justification of general relativity, particularly the description of Pound-Rebka experiment on the gravitational redshift.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 41
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