General Relativity Workbook

After a century and a half, says Moore (physics, Pomona College, California) the instrumentation and applications are beginning to catch up with the theory of general relativity, making it a practical tool in physics rather than intellectual exercise in mathematics. He has found that he can now teach the theory to undergraduate students by demonstrating actual applications. This workbook, with homework pages to be torn out and handed in, supports a one-semester introduction to general relativity at the junior or senior undergraduate level. It assumes only that students have taken multivariate calculus, some intermediate Newtonian mechanics beyond a standard treatment of mechanics, and electricity and magnetism at the introductory level. Additional science and mathematics would smooth the way, of course. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
A General Relativity Workbook is a textbook intended to support a one-semester upper division undergraduate course on general relativity.
General relativity, which lies at the heart of contemporary physics, has recently become the focus of a number of lively theoretical, experimental, and computational research programs. As a result, undergraduates have become increasingly excited to learn about the subject. A General Relativity Workbook is a textbook intended to support a one-semester upper division undergraduate course on general relativity. Through its unique workbook-based design, it enables students to develop a solid mastery of both the physics and the supporting tensor calculus by pushing (and guiding) them to work through the implications. Each chapter, which is designed to correspond to one class session, involves a short overview of the concepts without obscuring derivations or details, followed by a series of boxes that guide students through the process of working things out for themselves. This active-learning approach enables students to develop a more secure mastery of the material than more traditional approaches. More than 350 homework problems support further learning. This book more strongly emphasizes the physics than many of its competitors, and while it provides students a full grounding in the supporting mathematics (unlike certain other competitors), it introduces the mathematics gradually and in a completely physical context.