How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog

Given the title of the book and the use of a dog as an interlocutor, one might expect this to be a trivialized, or even a very easy book on the subject of Relativity Theory – it is not. I make this assessment as a retired materials scientist who has prepared a course on Einstein for the senior community in which I live. To do so, I have read a great many of the general treatments of Special and General Relativity, including most that are listed in the suggested reading list at the back of this book. Compared to the rest of the books, I would rate this one as being of intermediate difficulty. It is surly not a comic treatment or a trivial one, but one that deals with aspects of Relativity Theory that are quite complex and that are therefore left out of many other treatments.What is in the book and why I rate this book as being of intermediate difficulty – The book covers both Special and General Relativity and their applications to cosmology and the attempt to unify Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. The book employs some equations (with a typographical error in the fourth of Maxwell’s Equations), but does not do much with them. It also introduces some very complicate aspects of space-time geometry that are wisely left out of many other books written for a general audience. I found the chapters devoted to space-time geometry to be very complex and not at all clear. Fortunately, I had previously read Mermin’s “It’s About Time”, which is referenced in Orzel’s book. Mermin devotes much more of his book to this difficult concept, and I wish that Orzel had done likewise. Mermin’s book is more complete in its treatment, as it derives ideas that are only stated or partially derived in Orzel’s book, but Mermin’s book requires much more effort on the part of the reader to get the most from it. I got the impression that Orzel was attempting to simplify the approach provided by Mermin, which is a good thing for one desiring an understanding of the basics of relativity, as Mermin’s book is in my opinion quite an undertaking for someone without the proper background. However, I found that I needed Mermin’s book to supplement what was covered in Orzel’s book.I found Orzel’s book to be a useful addition to my library on the subject of relativity. It clarified several ideas for me, but I feel that this book is a bit too complex for someone just interested in a “talking dog” overview of relativity, especially since the dog in question was much more acquainted with physics and Relativity Theory than the average prospective reader of the book. I would recommend Wolfson’s “Simply Einstein” for a very good introduction to relativity – one that does not use any math (except in a 4-page appendix) or complex space-time geometry, although it is discussed in a very general manner – much more simply than the discussions in Orzel’s book. I recommend Taylor and Wheeler’s “Space Time Physics” for an introductory treatment that uses simple mathematics, but in a complete fashion and along with solved problems that provide a firmer grasp of the subject. Space Time Physics does a much better job of explaining space-time geometry, clarifying aspects of this subject that I found confusing in Orzel’s book. Mermin’s book is also a good choice for a reader willing to invest the time and effort to get the most from it, but I would rate is as more advanced than Orzel’s book.

Chad Orzel's How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is a terrific book for anyone wanting to learn more about the elementary physics from the basics of the tehroy of relativity to the speed of light to more complex notions associated with blackholes, the curvature of the universe, and particle science. We also learn what is happening at CERN. Did you know that physicists there have developed conditions to create their own black hole? But to make this physics more fun, Dr. Orzel presents his teaching to his beloved dog, Emmy. Whether her attemping to trick her master into giving her more treats or making backhanded comments about her number one nemesis, the black cat, Nero, she adds a delightful comic relief that keeps the reader entertained. Dr. Orzel's clever introduction of Emmy further allows us to see how physics plays a key role in the everyday life of humans and dogs and even cats alike. This is one book that can make anyone a physics enthusiast, even those previously wary of science. I can definitely see this work as even a supplement to any physics class, as it is one physics book you will not want to put down as it has one of the cutest and furriest teaching assistants you'll ever have.

The level of this book was just right for me. I am just an interested amateur. It required virtually no mathematics knowledge. It had all of my favorite examples and explanations and much more that I was not familiar with. It was also entertaining.

If you have an inquisitive mind that's happy to supplement your knowledge with google searches and youtube videos, and you're prepared to reread passages with a pen and make your own notes as you read, you can easily find everything you need to know about relativity in this book. Unfortunately Mr. Orzel would rather like to confuse you with a bunch of physicist jargon, and with definitions of simple concepts that stretch for pages and could only be understood by fellow academics such as he. Entire chapters in the first half were badly worded, and either failed to deliver all the content they could or delivered largely irrelevant and roundabout content. Throughout the book I often found I could often make paragraphs or even entire pages of explanation clearer with the simple addition of one or two side sentencesI'm glad I was able to learn what I could out of it, and this book really doesn't deserve two stars, but I'm worried about if somebody else without much in the way of formal education tries to pick this up and gets scared away from such awesome, intriguing knowledge. I'm sure Mr. Orzel thinks he's explained these concepts in a quite simple and easy to understand manner, but the truth is the opposite. I'm sure he's a fine atomic physics professor otherwise, and his other book starring Emmy does not suffer from these problems nearly as badly

Relativity is a non-intuitive theory. This is the first book on relativity that was fun to read. I think Chad should have added a disclaimer stating, "No squirrels or bunnies were injured during the making of this book".

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author did a great job of providing the big picture of relativity without having to resort to very much math. I'm an engineer and so have taken several high school and university-level physics courses; I believe that I (and my fellow students) would have benefited from first reading this book, before the big picture was, if not lost, then obscured by the oft times difficult math associated with relativity. Teaching relativity through conversations with Emmy the dog was very cleaver and effective! I would recommend this book to high school and beginning college students who are about to take physics and anyone who is interested in relativity without wanting to wade through the gory math details.

Having previously read "How to Teach Quantum Physics to your Dog" I had a good idea of what to expect in this other book by Chad Orzel. In each chapter, Orzel seeks to explain some element of physics linked to relativity, while Emmy, his dog, frequently interrupts with questions or opinions. The concept is an interesting one, in that the role of Emmy is to ask the dumb questions that the reader might be pondering. This approach also gives Orzel an opportunity to restate what he's already written, therefore reinforcing the points he wants to get across.To a great degree this approach works and it also allows some humour to lighten the text. For example Emmy, rather than being impressed by what she learns, is quite scathing and sarcastic in places about how much physicists don't know about the universe. It's also clear that Emmy, despite being a dog (although no average dog since she can hold conversations), already understand a lot about physics - certainly more than does the average non-physicist who might be reading the book. Consequently, many of the points she raises probably wouldn't have occurred to "ordinary" readers. She's also irritating in that despite an in-depth knowledge of physics, Emmy is naive is other areas, such as referring to elevators [or lifts, in British-English] as Magic Closets, although I suppose a cynic might say that theoretical physicists may also have such an unworldliness about them.Notwithstanding these minor irritations, this is a good book which, besides covering the core areas of relativity, also ventures into related areas such as particle physics, cosmology, black holes, dark matter, dark energy, and unified theories (including string theory). I struggled somewhat in Orzel's explanations of Minkowski diagrams, but to a large extent I blame this on me reading the Kindle version where viewing pictures at the same time as reading the text is challenging. I would have fared better in this regard had I read a paper version of the book.

Professor Chad Orzel and his mad mutt Emmy are back, this time to explain the concepts of relativity. I enjoyed enormously the companion book on quantum physics last year, and was very much looking forward to seeing the other great area of modern physics receive the same treatment.As before, Orzel sets out a clear account of the field, working in many cases from first principles, but continuously framed by very funny exchanges between him and his dog, who, like any of her kind, is constantly looking for ways to increase her food intake, and her success in hunting bunnies and squirrels.The quantum physics volume introduced me to a lot of relatively new thinking and experimental evidence, and I was hoping for the same this time, but relativity is obviously a more mature field, and there was less that was new to me in this book. That said, the teaching of this field has obviously moved on since my student days, and I was surprised to find, for example, the concept of relativistic mass increase referred to as an "old" model, with the book focusing much more on momentum calculations. Similarly the basics of special relativity are presented using a range of geometrical models, with a heavy emphasis on the spacetime diagram, which is a different approach to some previous books I've read.I had some complaints about the Kindle edition of the quantum physics volume separating diagrams and footnotes too far from the relevant text. On this occasion I received a physical copy of the book and was looking forward to that being less of an issue. The physical book layout is definitely better, but could still be improved, as diagrams are often a page or more away from the descriptive text.However, that's a minor niggle, and really my only one. If you want to learn more about relativity and also have a good laugh, this is a strong recommendation.

Once you get used to the folksy style of Orzel's conversations with his talking dog (sic), this is really a very clear and thorough survey of both special and general theories of relativity. Actually about half the text consists of straightforward author-to-reader explanations, and you realise after a while that the intervening doggy dialogues provide welcome, often genuinely funny, relief, allowing you to digest the sheer enormity of the concepts. Furthermore, Orzel puts questions into the dog's mouth which anticipate a reader's likely demands for more clarification. I thoroughly recommend this book and look forward to reading the companion volume on Quantum Physics.

Excellent - just the right levels of complexity and brevity. Its one ' but of those subjects where you may thinking 'at last I understand' - until you try describing it all to someone else. This book is very clever at making the subject stick in my head long enough to be able to explain (some) of the concepts. Will re-read.

This book is concise, informative and a fantastic read. Whether you have a passing interest in relativity or are using this for educational purposes it is perfect. A small amount of Physics knowledge would help along the way, but I wouldn't say it is necessary. YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. His Quantumn Physics book is also great.