Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory: The Theoretical Minimum Paperback – September 6, 2018

This latest book by Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman is a masterpiece. This well written book gets my five stars because, at least for me, it admirably lived up to its claim to present the theoretical minimum necessary to start doing physics. Let me further explain.(1) There are many well written books explaining the chemical properties of substances in terms of electron spin and the exclusion principle. But, if you would like to go deeper and understand the origin of spin, the non-physicist is in trouble because there are not many easily understood books written about relativistic QM. To this end I tried reading the relativistic QM chapter in Liboff's textbook. Although well written, I had trouble understanding the concepts because it assumed the reader had some prior understanding of special relativity, especially four-vectors and the Lorentz transformations. Here is where Professor Susskind's book saved the day. He covered this background material with enough clarity and in enough depth that I was able to re-read Liboff's chapter and understand it well enough to even successfully work some of the chapter problems.(2) As part of my physics self-education, I got a copy of Byron and Fuller's Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics with the goal of working through the first few chapters. At the end of the first chapter, there were some problems based on the Electromagnetic Field tensor. In hindsight, the problems were not difficult, but nevertheless, I had trouble because I lacked an understanding of the tensor and how its components interconnect and transform. Again, Professor Susskind's book was indispensable. His coverage of tensor manipulations, coupled with an excellent introduction to the field tensor gave me an understanding sufficient to solve the chapter problem.I found his treatment of Maxwell's Equations to be a breath of fresh air. For quite some time, I wanted to find an understandable interpretation of their meaning. I kept putting it off however, because in my reference E&M book, Maxwell's equations were first mentioned a discouraging 295 pages into the book. For the self learner, Professor Susskind's introduction makes so much more sense. He gives an interpretation of Maxwell's Equations first, and then shows how the Laws of E&M follow. That approach made all the difference for me.As a non-physicist, I found Chapter 7 particularly enlightening. All of the fundamental principles of modern physics were clearly laid out in this chapter. Although each principle had been discussed in previous chapters of this book and earlier books in the series, this chapter connected them all together into a coherent, understandable and insightful whole. Thank you Professor Susskind!The last chapter's discussion of the energy-momentum tensor is setting the stage for General Relativity. I cannot wait to get my copy.In general, the book was well written and logically constructed. It was real physics presented with humor and style.The "secret word" describing this book is "excellence".

This is the three book in the series I have read. The first book set up a lot of the mathematical machinery used here, namely the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian along with conservation laws and symmetries.I struggled a bit with the second book on quantum mechanics - have to go back and have another crack at that one.But this one was REALLY good. The setup of the book was so logical and the mathematical development was so well paced that I could feel much greater mathematical sophistication that helped me to anticipate many of the subsequent developments. Now, I will not say that I could erase all the equations and mathematical reasoning segments from the book, and as an exercise, recreate them from memory, calculation, and my own reasoning, but I will say that if you go over the material at a comfortable pace and are willing to look back a chapter or two or three to remind yourself of some key detail, you will be very well rewarded with a view into special relativity, electrodynamics, and classical field theory.Now back to Quantum.I cannot wait for General Relativity to come out. Chapter 11 seemed like almost like a cliffhanger to change gears into gravitational field theory.In your reference frame, take the time to read this book. As for general relativity, when it comes out, You Bet Your Life I will read that one.

Full disclosure: I'm writing this review because I want this series to sell more and be so profitable that the authors will crank them out faster. Maybe Oprah can revive her book club and feature them. I've read the other two books, and this one is definitely the most challenging and covers the most ground (btw the first book should be considered a prerequisite if you don't have a good understanding of Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mechanics). You definitely won't feel like stuff is dumbed down; when they need tensors, they will trot out tensors. Maxwell's equations will be introduced first and used to derive the simpler EM laws. You'll get a pretty deeper idea of how magnetism and electricity are connected by relativity, how the least action principle works with fields and not just particles, and maybe how the Higgs field gives some particles mass (though you may not realize it until later). You don't even have to live in a trash can or do all of the problems or even understand every page to get a lot out of the book, though I'll probably give it another read-through (or at least do some exercises) before the next one on GR. I'm curious to see what the theoretical minimum is for that!

Libro comprado nuevo.El contenido es aceptable, es un libro introductorio. No se compara con el nivel de un libro especializado en el area de teoría clásica de campos como podría ser el libro escrito por Landau.Para comenzar a estudiar el tema puede ser una buena referencia pero se necesita acompañar por otro libro. Tiene muy pocos ejercicios repartidos en el texto. Falta problemas para desarrollar la practica y aplicar la teoría aprendida.

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.

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

The presentation is clear with no short cuts in math exposition. A must read through if you have interest in the subject

Clearly written, and can be use to apply in practical context as field patterns--==>> the main concepts and formulas related are presented with demonstration but in a resume concise way that can be use for solving applied solutions linked to fields behaviors seen in a relativity relation --, some other books flies in extended complexities that are sinking the possibilies to use theire content for solving problems of behavior of fields in a context of physical and or quantic state -->>>> Fundmentaly clear, and like said in french , strait to the point, ;droit au but -->>> Recommend to any one interested by the subject -->>>