I was reading the chapter in Cosmos today about the theory of relativity, and even with Sagan's explanation, it's still not something I can wrap my mind around. What other good books out there give good explanations of relativity?

I did check out A Brief History of Time today, along with The Demon Haunted World, and the first tape in the Cosmos video set.

Brian

Are you looking for explanations, or a story that deals with relativity?

I really liked "Forever War", which deals with the problems of fighting a war where you're traveling at relativistic speeds, and battles may be hundreds of light years away. Things like arriving for a battle and finding out your ships are a thousand years out of date -- like arriving with a Spanish warship and finding a modern day aircraft carrier to do battle with.

What part of the theory are you having problems with? Are you having problems wrapping your mind around it, or having problems accepting it? I have a friend that just can't accept that you'd go on a 1000 year (by Earth time) interstellar journey at near light speed and come back only having aged a few days.

I'm looking for a book that explains it. I could accept it if I could wrap my mind around it a little better.

Brian

How about Einstein's Relativity?

I have a copy of it somewhere around here, and I don't remember it being too hard of a read. I do recall a great metaphor about trains that I wanted to rip off.

Einstein for Beginners was my first exposure to it when I was about 15. This combined with A brief history of time gave me a pretty good handle on relativity.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...937142-0302408