Spacetime physics
by Edwin F. Taylor · first published 1966
14mentions
8recommended by
10HN commenters
2010–2025first – last mentioned
80% recommend20% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Intuitive, clearly written introduction to special relativity that needs only high school algebra; its diagrams and worked examples make time dilation and spacetime geometry understandable for beginners and students.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
Modern Classical PhysicsKip S. Thorne, Roger D. Blandford2019–2025
Modern Classical Physics
Kip S. Thorne, Roger D. Blandford
Recommended by 4 · mentioned by 64 recommend · 6 mention4 recommend · 64 recommend
2011–2025General relativity
Robert M. Wald
Recommended by 8 · mentioned by 108 recommend · 10 mention8 recommend · 108 recommend
2007–2026The Road to Reality
Roger Penrose
Recommended by 67 · mentioned by 12867 recommend · 128 mention67 recommend · 12867 recommend
…any special relativity textbook (if you don't know Special Relativity, it really only requires basic algebra to understand most of it and is pretty intuitive once you've read it). I recommend Taylor's "Spacetime Physics" which has lots of fun pictures and examples. Anyway, you can think of special relativity is being all about information: if I look at something moving, it takes time for the light to reach me and by…
on “How Feynman Diagrams Almost Saved Space” ↗…sure. Jackson does cover the E&M case pretty well (EDIT: in chapters 11 and 14, note especially sections 10.11 and 14.1), but I'd combine it with the treatment in Taylor & Wheeler's highly readable _Spacetime Physics_. For E&M, the standard way to develop this is to explain magnetism as Lorentz-transformed static electrical attraction/repulsion. Take two wires, and run current through them. Transforming to a frame…
on “What is the Speed of Gravity?” ↗No, sorry, I can't explain the theory of relativity in one paragraph. It takes a book. Spacetime Physics, by Taylor and Wheeler, explains it very well with only high school level maths.
on “The Trouble with Quantum Mechanics” ↗…own undergrad curriculum): Foundations: 1. Newtonian Mechanics by A.P. French (https://archive.org/details/NewtonianMechanics/mode/2up). This will give you a good foundation for what is to come. 2. Spacetime Physics by Taylor & Wheeler --- first edition if you can find it! It is much, much better than the second! Special relativity is conceptually strange, but mathematically pretty easy, so you can jump right into…
on “Ask HN: How to self-study physics?” ↗…weeded out. Sean Carroll has a set of free online lecture notes [1] that make a good start (they're more focused on GR than SR but they have an introductory section that covers SR). Taylor & Wheeler's Spacetime Physics [2] is a good introductory textbook as well. The fundamental physical point here is that timelike objects (objects with positive rest mass that follow timelike worldlines) and lightlike objects (objects…
on “How light is a neutrino? The answer is closer than ever” ↗My favourite book on special relativity is Spacetime Physics by Taylor and Wheeler. It's intuitive, clearly written and well laid out, with an Edward Tufte style column of text running along the main body that stops you getting lost in the equations. Some parts…
on “Einstein for Everyone ” ↗…implications. Time dilation in particular felt like something that could not be what it seemed after covering the basics using Wiki/YouTube/etc. So I picked up an introductory book on it. I'd highly recommend Spacetime Physics: Introduction to Special Relativity by Taylor/Wheeler. It's extremely well written and just as importantly has plenty of problems to test your understanding. And it was even more fascinating, and bizarre,…
on “Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?” ↗…special relativity isn't super complicated and is quite approachable. No calculus, just straightforward algebra. (sadly this statement is very much not true for General Relativity). I highly recommend "Spacetime Physics" by Taylor and Wheeler, which is readable, full of pictures, and yet written by two amazing physicists. And as I just discovered it's even on the Internet Archive!
on “Carlo Rovelli on challenging our common-sense notion of time” ↗I will also recommend reading "Spacetime Physics" by Taylor and Wheeler (Feynman's PhD advisor). Excellent discussion in a kind of old school style (which is how I like it).
on “What Is Relativity, Anyway?” ↗Taylor’s and Wheeler’s “Spacetime Physics” is quite approachable and easy to read introduction to Special Relativity that has hardly any math beyond basic algebra.
on “A Spacetime Surprise: Time Isn’t Just Another Dimension” ↗I've always had a fondness for Taylor and Wheeler's "Spacetime Physics". https://www.eftaylor.com/spacetimephysics/
on “Show HN: Relativity: A Modern Primer” ↗Taylor & Wheeler's Spacetime Physics is similar. They emphasize the importance of frame invariant representations. (I highly recommend the first edition over the second edition, the second edition was a massive downgrade.) Kip Thorne…
on “What is a manifold?” ↗…internet long past, when it was small enough to have such a thing as a physics FAQ, this was among them. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/physics-faq/part4/ The first chapter of the referenced Taylor & Wheeler 'Spacetime Physics' can be found here: http://www.eftaylor.com/download.html
on “Discover the Ladder Paradox, relativity's greatest thought experiment” ↗…last few decades or so the concept of relativistic mass has gone out of favor in physics and its teaching. The wikipedia section for relativistic mass[1] includes the following quote from the textbook "Spacetime Physics," by Taylor and Wheeler: > "The concept of "relativistic mass" is subject to misunderstanding. That's why we don't use it. First, it applies the name mass – belonging to the magnitude of a 4-vector –…
on “NASA engineer's 'helical engine' may violate the laws of physics” ↗