🚀 go-pugleaf

RetroBBS NetNews Server

Inspired by RockSolid Light RIP Retro Guy

Article View: sci.physics
Article #4845

Re: Gravity, why?

#4845
From: William VanHorne
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 15:21
32 lines
2019 bytes
In article <5795@npg-sd.SanDiegoCA.NCR.COM> claborne@npg-sd.SanDiegoCA.NCR.COM (Chris Claborne) writes:
>I am looking a book or books that will explain gravity for the lay person.
>I want to know why an object with a large mass (like the earch) pulls at 
>everythng arround it (light, me, my computer).  What is it that is causing
>the pull?  How can we have gravity waves?
>

  "The Relativity Explosion"  by  Martin Gardner
  "The ABCs of Relativity"  by  Bertrand Russell
  "Gravity"  by  George Gamow

Any one of the three will do, all are excellent presentations of gravity/GR.
All three are still in print and in paperback (gee, I *hope* they're still 
in print).  Gamow is, of course, the most fun.

As a sidelight, can we add "The Relativity Explosion" to the FAQ?  This book is
an update of Gardner's c.1960 book "Relativity For The Millions" and covers
SR and GR without any of those nasty ol' equations. Gardner abandoned his usual
mission of proving how clever he is to provide a lucid explanation of all
sorts of "paradoxes" inherent in SR & GR. It has often seemed to me that the
questions seen here about twins, poles and barns, FTL scissors, etc., 
need not take up as much bandwidth as they do since they are covered so well
in a cheap and readily available paperback.

IMHO, of course.

---Bill VanHorne

--------------------------------------------------
Please try to use the word paradigm in every post.
Thank you.
-------------------------------------------------- 
Technical Details
Message-ID: <1992Nov12.152146.17100@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!wvhorn
References: <5795@npg-sd.SanDiegoCA.NCR.COM>

Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!wvhorn
From: wvhorn@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (William VanHorne)
Subject: Re: Gravity, why?
Message-ID: <1992Nov12.152146.17100@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: news@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University
References: <5795@npg-sd.SanDiegoCA.NCR.COM>
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 15:21:46 GMT
Lines: 32