Leonard Susskind - Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory

This book is one of several that closely follow my Internet course series, The Theoretical Minimum. My coauthor, Art Friedman, was a student in these courses. The book benefited from the fact that Art was learning the subject and was therefore sensitive to the issues that might be confusing to the beginner. During the course of writing, we had a lot of fun, and weve tried to convey some of that spirit with a bit of humor. If you dont get it, ignore it.

The two previous books in this series cover classical mechanics and basic quantum mechanics. So far, we have not studied light, and thats because light is a relativistic phenomenona phenomenon that has to do with the special theory of relativity, or SR as well sometimes call it. Thats our goal for this book: SR and classical field theory. Classical field theory means electromagnetic theorywaves, forces on charged particles, and so onin the context of SR. Special relativity is where well begin.

Leonard Susskind

My parents, the children of immigrants, were bilingual. They taught us kids some Yiddish words and phrases but mainly reserved that language for themselves, often to say things they did not want us to understand. Many of their secret conversations were accompanied by loud peals of laughter.

Yiddish is an expressive language; its well suited to great literature as well as to daily life and down-to-earth humor. It bothers me that my own comprehension is so limited. Id love to read all the great works in the original, but frankly Id be happy enough just to get the jokes.

A lot of us have similar feelings about mathematical physics. We want to understand the great ideas and problems and engage our own creativity. We know theres poetry to be read and written, and were eager to participate in some fashion. All we lack is that secret language. In this series, our goal is to teach you the language of physics and show you some of the great ideas in their native habitat.

If you join us, youll be able to wrap your head around a good portion of twentieth-century physics. Youll certainly be equipped to understand much of Einsteins early work. At a minimum, youll get the jokes and the serious ideas that underlie them. To get you started, weve thrown in a few jokes of our own, including some real groaners.

Im delighted to acknowledge everyone who helped and supported us along the way. It may be a clich to say we couldnt have done it without you, but it also happens to be true.

Working with the professionals at Brockman, Inc., and Basic Books is always a pleasure as well as a learning experience. John Brockman, Max Brockman, and Michael Healey played a critical role in transforming our idea into a real project. From there, TJ Kelleher, Hlne Barthlemy, Carrie Napolitano, and Melissa Veronesi walked us through the editorial and production process with great skill and understanding. Laura Stickney of Penguin Books coordinated the publication of the UK edition so smoothly, we hardly saw it happening. Copyeditor Amy J. Schneider made substantial improvements to our initial manuscript, as did proofreaders Lor Gehret and Ben Tedoff.

A number of Leonards former students generously offered to review the manuscript. This was no small task. Their insights and suggestions were invaluable, and the book is far better as a result. Our sincere thanks go to Jeremy Branscome, Byron Dom, Jeff Justice, Clinton Lewis, Johan Shamril Sosa, and Dawn Marcia Wilson.

As always, the warmth and support Ive received from family and friends has seen me through this project. My wife, Maggie, spent hours creating and re-creating the two Hermanns Hideaway drawings, getting them done on time while dealing with the illness and passing of her mother.

This project has afforded me the luxury of pursuing two of my life passions at the same time: graduate level physics and fourth-grade humor. In this respect, Leonard and I are a perfect team, and collaborating with him is an unmitigated pleasure.

Art Friedman