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Kevin Brown is known to many fans of physics and mathematics for his outstanding online pages on both of those topics. This book captures his thoughts and writings on the topic of Special Relativity, a topic that too often is viewed as so basic to physics and so well quantified that there is not much more to say about it.

Kevin Brown confounds that view with a style of writing that combines mathematical precision with deep research, clarity of thought, and that rarest of all gifts in the hard sciences, the ability to ask "why?" at just the right point in a discussion. The result is a vivid and powerful set of reflections on just how deeply Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity... More > has impacted and altered the course of history, and why Special Relativity continues to influence nearly every aspect of modern science to this day.

If you have any desire to dig into the deep foundations of modern physics, and if you are familiar with basic calculus, I recommend that you view this book not just as "yet another relativity book," but rather as your required first read on the topic of Special Relativity. Taking Kevin Brown's writings to heart will raise the comprehension and clarity with which you approach every other book you read in physics, not just those on relativity. < Less

This wonderful book has long been available online, but I'm delighted to see that the author has chosen to publish it in physical form. This is the kind of book you really want to be able to flip through and fill with marginalia. I've been reading through it about once a year, and each time I find myself understanding it a little better. The author has a great gift for presenting challenging material in a way that remains accessible to those of us who haven't made it past calculus. Equal parts history, philosophy of science, and physics textbook, it's an absolute treasure, and I'm delighted to finally be able to give the author some money.

If you have read all or parts of Richard Feyman’s “Lectures on Physics” then you will appreciate Kevin Brown’s “Reflections on Relativity”. Brown’s book title has the word “Relativity” in it, but the book covers many fields of physics filtered through the concepts of Special and General Relativity. The writing style is direct and simple. The content is concentrated but has the thoroughness of Feynman’s book, at a more intermediate level.

Mathematical content is sufficient to understand the material but not overdone with details. Many ideas are discussed that are usually not treated in textbooks and some ideas may be original. Additionally, the book describes... More > contributions of many early thinkers, and 19th and 20th century scientists with many quotes and references. Sometimes, reading, you may have the feeling that you are hearing these thinkers and scientists speaking of their ideas to you directly.

This book is not a science textbook, but if you want to understand one better, you need to read Brown’s book. I highly recommend this book for students and teachers at College and University level and to professional and amateur scientists, engineers, philosophers.

John Kert
Physicist/Engineer < Less