Introducing Einstein's Relativity
by Ray D'Inverno
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 July, 1992)
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Reviews (9)

Where's the new edition?
This is an excellent book. But I have seen a 1996 edition of it, not described above.

The best intro book on GR !!!
This is without any doubt the best book one can use for starting with GR: it is self contained, well written and moreover it is full of Physical insight. In brief: a great book. Even the introductory mathematical part (about tensor calculus) is great written: not too short and not too long. If one would like to gain an additional point of view about tensor calculus I'd recommend to compare the way followed by R. d'Inverno with that followed by Richtmyer "Principles of advanced mathematical Physics" vol 2 (the last all done in geodesic coordinates: this is a book on maths and not about GR!!). The level of Ray d'Inverno is at advanced undergraduate/1st year graduate: in fact one can find a lot of well discussed topics that are generally left out in other books on the subject. Of course this is not an advanced text like R. Wald or Hawking-Ellis, which are the right books if one wants to get a deeper insight in particular topics. The only fundamental thing R. d'Inverno lacks to treat in a fully way is the form of the Energy of the Gravitational field in GR and its related problems: no specific discussion about it. I think this is an important topic. A valuable (and probably the best) discussion about the latter can be found in L.D.Landau "Field Theory" book, or even in Sean Carroll "Spacetime and Geometry" book (a very good one, my favourite together with Landau and Ray d'Inverno), or you can also have a look about it into P. Dirac or Weinberg.

THE book that will get you started with General Relativity
This is about the best introduction to General Relativity that
I've ever seen.It introduces just (and very clearly) all
the mathematical tools you need, clearly puts the basis of the
theory in the exposed formalism (tensor calculus) and then
applies it to quite a lot of interesting physical problems.
After a few missed starts, it was the book that really got me
into General Relativity ; once you've gone through it you wonder
why you were having difficulties before. ... Read more

Isbn: 0198596863
Sales Rank: 83741
Subjects:  1. Black holes (Astronomy)    2. Calculus of tensors    3. Cosmology    4. Gravitation    5. Relativity    6. Relativity (Physics)    7. Science    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Relativity physics    10. Theoretical methods   

Schaum's Outline of Tensor Calculus (Schaum's)
by David C. Kay
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 April, 1988)
list price: $16.95 -- our price: $11.53
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Reviews (8)

As an Outline...
This is not a book to learn tensor calculus from.It is an outline only, no greath depth or insight is presented.This book works perfectly as a supplement to a course in tensor calculus, or as a quick reference for the various techniques and concepts involved, provided one is already somewhat familiar with the material.It would be possible to learn the basics of tensor calculus from this book with some effort, and reflection on the implications of the concepts dealt with, however as a complete course in the subject it is insufficient, and I believe intentionally so.
The more modern aspects of tensor analysis on manifolds are largely ignored in this treatment, but also intentionally so, an approach which I found useful practically.
The book does not aim to be an all-inclusive course in the applications of tensor concepts to all areas of mathmatics, but rather a quick-reference guide supplementing more complete treatments, and as such, is largely successful.

Disappointed.
This book is substandard for the Schaum's Outline Series. The descriptions for the techniques are much too brief, and as a result, it's hard to follow what's going on. The summaries are so thin that it's even difficult to learn how to do the mechanics of tensor operations, a real deficit for an outline book! I have a pretty good background in advanced math, but I don't think I could learn tensor analysis from this book. I was especially disappointed because I have had good luck with other books in the Schaum's series. I'm planning on looking for a more traditional book with more discussion and background of the different techniques.

disappointing
I am surprised by the high marks given by other reviewers. The book has no insight, depth, or explanation about what tensor calculus is. It is merely a cookbook for doing some manipulations with summations over more than one index. You cannot learn tensor calculus from this shallow excuse for a book. If you want to learn tensor calculus and other advanced mathematics for physicists, pick up "Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Mechanics," by Byron and Fuller; it is the best math methods book I have ever used. ... Read more

Isbn: 0070334846
Sales Rank: 59533
Subjects:  1. Calculus    2. Calculus of tensors    3. Problems, exercises, etc    4. Study Guides    5. Tensorial Calculus    6. Vector Analysis    7. Mathematics / Calculus   

Tensor Calculus
by J. L. Synge, John Lighton, Synge, Alfred Schild
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 June, 1978)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $10.17
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Reviews (5)

Hard to follow
It's an old fashioned text, confusing and hard to follow.

okay book
this book dosen't take things from basics but goes to do high level calculus.

A good solid introduction
Synge and Schild is a good solid introduction to tensor calculus, as it is used by most physicists, and was used throughout the 20th century. ... Read more

Isbn: 0486636127
Sales Rank: 327339
Subjects:  1. Calculus of tensors    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Vector Analysis   

A First Course in General Relativity
by Bernard F. Schutz
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (31 January, 1985)
list price: $50.88 -- our price: $37.00
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Reviews (14)

The Mathematics of Relativity
I read several of the "popular" books on relativity before deciding to take the plunge and learn the mathematics behind this amazing theory.This book shows how based on Einstein's postulate on the universality of the speed of light, the mathematics forces us in certain directions and builds to create General Relativity.The key mathematical building block in this book is Tensor analysys. I had no idea of going into the book what that even was, but Schutz will guide your through it assuming you have a solid knowledge of vectors and calculus. Even with that knowledge, this book requires a decent amount of effort so be prepared to read and re-read chapters.I recommend this to anyone that knows the conceptual basics of relativity, but wants to spend the effort to learn the math.

Good, good, good for passing exams!
This is an introductory book for GR. I read this book two years ago for preparing an exam about GR, while I did never learn anything related to GR before but I passed the exam very well after reading this book. This book doesn't describe GR with the most modern math languages, but who cares if you just wanna learn the ideas of GR, actually this makes the understanding easier. No more preliminary knowledge than college physics is needed for reading this book, even the simple differental geometry has been self-contained very well in this small book. I consider this book a model for all good physics books.

Solid start but you'll need Ohanian/wald
This a very readable book that covers a lot of topics nicely. It gives a solid introduction to many of the main topics in the field. The only complaint I have is that it doesn't cover enough material.
My advice if you want a complete understanding of the field is to buy this and the Ohanian text (which is very thorough, pleasantly readable and does covering just about everything you need). Read them side by side and once that is done move on to Wald. Don't bother with MTW, its is a tome of scattered bits and pieces that work as a reference but it is NOT something from which you want to learn the subject. ... Read more

Isbn: 0521277035
Sales Rank: 35927
Subjects:  1. Astrophysics    2. General relativity (Physics)    3. Nuclear Physics    4. Relativity    5. Science    6. Science/Mathematics    7. General relativity    8. Science / Nuclear Physics