How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog

by Orzel, Chad

• ISBN13: 9780465023318
• ISBN10: 0465023312
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-28
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

In How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog, popular physicist Chad Orzel explains Einstein's theory for non-scientists in a decidedly unscientific fashion. Through a series of conversations with his dog, Emmy, Orzel illuminates the complicated concepts behind relativity. It goes something like this; Emmy, the curious scamp that she is, typically pursues some half-understood aspect of science or math as a means for catching bunnies or squirrels. You know, like most dogs do. When she fails, or sometimes even before she does, Orzel gently explains the flaws in her plan, followed by a more detailed explanation of the real physics for interested humans. Emmy, in true puppy fashion, provides some occasional (and always helpful) interjections, asking for clarification or commenting on the explanation offered. In How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog, readers can expect to learn such concepts as how length contraction causes fast-moving objects to shrink and how relativity causes moving clocks to run slow, along with some of the cosmological consequences of general relativity and what it can tell us about where the universe came from and how it will end. From relative motion and time dilation, to the unification of forces and extra dimensions, Orzel will have even the biggest physics-phobe hooked. An entertaining ride through one of the great theories of modern physics, How to Teach Relativity to Your Dogwill teach you about space

Author Biography

Chad Orzel received his BA in physics from Williams College, his Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Maryland, and his postdoctorate from Yale University. He maintains a regular blog, Uncertain Principles, and is author of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. He is currently a professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He lives near campus with his wife, their daughter, and, of course, Emmy.