What Is Relativity?: An Intuitive Introduction to Einstein's Ideas, and Why They Matter

It is common knowledge that if the Sun suddenly turned into a black hole it would suck Earth and the rest of the planets into oblivion Yet as bestselling author and astrophysicist Jeffrey Bennett points out black holes dont suck With that simple idea in hand Bennett begins an entertaining introduction to Einsteins theories describing the amazing phenomena readers would actually experience if they took a trip through a black holeThe theory of relativity also gives us the cosmic speed limit of the speed of light the mind-bending ideas of time dilation and curvature of spacetime and what may be the most famous equation in history e mc Indeed the theory of relativity shapes much of our modern understanding of the universe and it is not xjust a theoryx every major prediction of relativity has been tested to exquisite precision and its practical applications include the Global Positioning System GPS Bennett proves anyone can understand the basics of Einsteins ideas His intuitive nonmathematical approach gives a wide audience its first real taste of how relativity works and why it is so important not only to science but also to the way we view ourselves as human beings.