How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog
Emmy is an enthusiastic physics student. She also has four paws and a tail. In How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog, Emmy’s master, physicist Chad Orzel, proves himself to be a master explainer of the intricacies of special and general relativity for both humans and canines alike.
Orzel alternates amusing conversations with Emmy about the concepts of relativity with detailed discussions of the physics involved. The topics range from time dilation and the impossibility of traveling faster than light to gravitational lensing and black holes.
Often, Orzel has to clarify Emmy’s misconceptions—and perhaps the reader’s as well—about just what relativity does and does not claim. For example, when Emmy insists on running very fast in an attempt to age more slowly, Orzel reminds her that even at a brisk pace, she’d need to run for a billion years just to gain one second. When Emmy decides that the way to squeeze through the slats in a neighbor’s fence is once again to run very fast, in order to experience length contraction, Orzel has to explain why it won’t work: Even if Emmy could run at relativistic speeds, she would see the slats in the fence contract, making it impossible to pull off her plan. And when Emmy proposes behaving like a black hole and swallowing every tasty treat in her vicinity, Orzel points out that the analogy is imperfect; for one thing, a black hole lurks behind an event horizon from which light cannot escape, whereas Emmy is visible the whole time. Orzel goes on to discuss the warping of spacetime, the attempt to unify gravity with other forces of nature, and much more.
Whether or not you have a pet with a knack for science, How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is a fun excursion through the relativistic world.
Softcover : 368 pages
Publisher: Basic Books Inc. ( February 28, 2012 )
Item #: 13-563722
ISBN: 9780465023318
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 inches
Product Weight: 12.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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