Baird E. Relativity in Curved Spacetime: Life without special relativity

Chocolate Tree Books, UK, 2007. – 399 p. – ISBN10: 0955706807, 0955706823Relativity theory has become one of the icons of Twentieth Century science. It's reckoned to be a difficult subject, taught as a layered series of increasingly difficult mathematics and increasingly abstract concepts. We're told that relativity theory is supposed to be this complicated and counter-intuitive. But how much of this historical complexity is really necessary? Can we bypass the interpretations and paradoxes and pseudoparadoxes of Einstein's special theory and jump directly to a deeper and more intuitive description of reality? What if curvature is a fundamental part of physics, and a final theory of relativity shouldn't reduce to Einstein's "flat" 1905 theory //on principle//? "Relativity…" takes us on a whistlestop tour of Twentieth Century physics - from black holes, quantum mechanics, wormholes and the Big Bang to the workings of the human mind, and asks: what would physics look like without special relativity?Background Physics
The Speed of Light
Gravity, Energy and Mass
Curved Space and Time
Relativity
The Newtonian Catastrophe
Effects Due to Relative Motion
Doppler Shifts
Apparent Length - Changes in Moving Objects
Aberration of Angles
Moving Bodies Drag Light
Limits to Observation
Quantum Mechanics and Observability
Dark Stars and Black Holes
Updating Standard Theory
What's Wrong With General Relativity?
Horrible Nasty Mathematics
Flat Spacetime and Special Relativity
Einstein's " Special " Theory of Relativity
So, What's Wrong With the Special Theory?
Experimental Evidence for Special Relativity
Future Physics
Cosmologies
Trouble With Wormholes
Metric Engineering and Warp Drives
The Human Factor
Limitations of Language and Procedure
The Perils of Experimentation
Calculations, References and Index