Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory: The Theoretical Minimum

Great content and links to on-line lectures.

This series of books called 'the theoretical minimum' are an excellent way to study areas in theoretical/mathematical physics. I can honestly say they are amongst the best textbooks I have ever read. The main objective of the authors is that these books are aimed at people interested in physics, but perhaps chose a different career path, but maintained an interest in the subject. I personally believe this is a stretch too far: great as these books are, they are far above the level of an 'enthusiastic amateur.'

This is by far the best book in the Theoretical Minimum series. Extremely well-written and easy to understand, even if you have never met the subject before, completely unlike the general relativity book. The latter parts of this book, especially electrodynamics, is rather difficult as a subject but this book made it look easy. If anyone in their early student years is interested in these topics, this is a must have.

The climax of this book is the derivation of the laws of electrodynamics from the action principle. It is assumed that your starting point is Theoretical Minimum Vol 1, where the action principle for non-relativistic particles was introduced. For electrodynamics, the action principle must be extended to incorporate the 4-dimensional space-time of special relativity. Crucially, the electrodynamic Lagrangian must now also satisfy Lorentz invariance, as well as gauge invariance. Furthermore, Noether symmetry and the Hamiltonian from Vol 1 are also used to derive their field equivalents: the electromagnetic energy and momentum densities. It’s quite a journey, and along the way this reader was very gently led through all the necessary background (special relativity, space-time, scalar invariants, tensors, extension of Euler-Lagrange to fields, and more) until the exhilarating moment of seeing Maxwell’s equations fall out from the the equations. It was all new to me, and it was a truly unforgettable experience, for which I thank the authors from the bottom of my heart. I don’t want to grouch – O! How I hate to, but if I may make a suggestion? Namely, that future editions include a kind of roadmap or summary to indicate where and how the various concepts link to each other. Maybe even just a glossary of the most important terms would help the reader not lose their way.

This is a really good book. However, it is full of equations and these do not display properly on the Kindle. Kindles (and other ereaders) are designed for text, not equations. This book (and others in the series) should not be offered for Kindle, unless accompanied by this warning.

Well written and well put together. A good first primer on the subject: Easy to read and to follow,

Susskind’s teaching style through the video lectures and the books are second to none. He explains ideas with perfect clarity and cuts straight to the heart of the concept. The maths that accompanies the notes are extensive without being daunting. I would highly recommend this book series to anyone interested in learning physics in more detail than reading popular science books.

The book is great, as per the others, but the Kindle version should not be on sale. Unlike me, I urge you: DO NOT IGNORE THIS WARNING. The equations, a somewhat central part of the book, have almost everything you need. They are just missing the occasional division, square-root, superscript and what have you. The result is they are incomprehensible. It is not possible to deduce the missing symbols so the only way of proceeding is to find some source on the Internet that shows the equations properly and refer to that. After a while, you realise you are in fact reading the same book on two different devices. It also appears that the mistakes are not the result of some piece of software mangling the equations, but rather have all the appearance of being done by a real person with very little understanding of maths. Why can't Amazon just fix it?

After retiring and reading several of Brian Greene's books, I decided I wanted a lot more math and physics background.In the last few years I have read or at least skimmed many basic and advanced volumes [including The Theoretical Minimum #1], which prepared me to appreciate the brilliance of the text and presentation of Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory. Perhaps it's the perspective added by Art Friedman that makes this so accessible to the interested but amateur reader.The development and consistent referencing of the lagrangian and action principles are very enlightening, and in a highly entertaining story to boot. A multiverse full of thank yous to Professor Susskind for the time and energy you have devoted to helping your fellow man to appreciate some of the wonders of the physical world.

I used to teach high school physics. Before reading this book, I would never have taken a course in Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory that had me as a teacher. I could do it now, because I've just read the clearest explanations of these topics that I've ever seen. This is the real deal, not a popularization. It even includes some tensor math; the first time I've understood it. A decent math background is needed, but if you have it, a lot of physics will make sense.

Tercer título de una magnífica serie de libros dirigidos a los que nos quedan cortas las obras de divulgación científica, pero no tenemos formación en física más allá del bachillerato. Imprescindible.

Levando em conta o estilo de prosa do autor e a exigência do conhecimento mínimo para prosseguir com a leitura é um livro que mantêm o leitor em constante reavaliação dos seus conhecimentos. Importante pela visão unificada do eletromagnetismo com a relatividade restrita.

I hesitated a lot before scoring this book 5*. In fact, the approach, through the least action principle, in special relativity is very original and worth to be read. Now, the book has a very mathematical approach on the one hand and after reading, I still feel the flavor of no rigorous process at stake for finding the Lagrangian of a given situation... There are also some basic questions on which I do not necessarily agree, as usual for books of physics, in particular concerning the equations of Maxwell and their interpretation. It is also a pity that no reference is made to the quantum experiment of Aharonov and Bohm showing the physical reality of the potential vector, and I would have liked seeing a discussion of its implications for gauge invariance...