--- product_id: 39377229 title: "Special Relativity: For the Enthusiastic Beginner" price: "SAR 141" currency: SAR in_stock: true reviews_count: 10 url: https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/39377229-special-relativity-for-the-enthusiastic-beginner store_origin: SA region: Saudi Arabia --- # Special Relativity: For the Enthusiastic Beginner **Price:** SAR 141 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Special Relativity: For the Enthusiastic Beginner - **How much does it cost?** SAR 141 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.sa](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/39377229-special-relativity-for-the-enthusiastic-beginner) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Buy Special Relativity: For the Enthusiastic Beginner on desertcart.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders Review: An excellent challenging text - I was a physics major 30 years ago and went into an unrelated field. Back then I concentrated on Biophysics. My only exposure to Special Relativity was a 1 hour lecture which taught me essentially nothing. This is my first real exposure to SR. I am self studying in the hopes of understanding particle physics one day. This text is very aptly named. It is for the enthusiastic beginner. If you are not enthusiastic about learning SR, then read an easier book. You are going to burn out of this one. As Prof. Morin says, SR is counterintuitive. He does an excellent job of explaining SR in detail and has an excellent writing style, but you don't learn physics by reading. You have to really think about it over and over again before it starts to sink in. I had to read each chapter 3 times before I could move on to the next. I still don't feel I have a good grasp. SR is just one of those topics that you have to read about many times over many years before it really starts to make sense. This is an excellent place to start. I will read Tsamparlis one day, but before I do that I will reread this one. The explanations in this book are excellent, but the real strength of this book are the worked out problems. It is nice to see his solution once you have struggled with the problem for some time. No other book has this many worked out problems. In short, if you plan to study advanced physics, you will have to master this material at this level before you move on to advanced work. For some it may be better suited as a second read on SR than a first, but if you plan to move on to more advanced material, this is probably the best preparation for it as far as SR goes. A final note: Prof Morin starts the book with a plea to buy the book as it will inevitably show up on the internet for free one day. The good professor put a lot of work into this book. It is only $20. The paper quality and print quality are excellent. Please buy the book or kindle version. Give the good professor his due. Review: Excellent for more than just beginners. - The subtitle of this book – “For enthusiastic beginners”, may make this book seem like it is a beginning or introductory text, and while some of it is indeed for beginners it is much more. The book covers aspects of Special Relativity, such as Rapidity (a mathematical function used to solve some advanced problems) and four-vectors (another mathematical approach that is used for complex problems), which are not covered in basic texts. It is not the type of book that one reads casually, but is rather one that requires a considerable amount of time and effort – effort to absorb the material and even more effort to solve the numerous problems contained in the book, as the book is focused on problem solving with numerous solved examples and solved problems, plus exercises that are meant as homework problems for a course on Special Relativity, the solutions of which are therefore not provided. The book includes remarks – commentaries by the author that might be added by him if you were taking a class in person. The book has wide 2.5 inch outside margins for figures that also allow ample room for margin notes. I highly recommend this book for beginners (but for ones enthusiastic enough to tackle the problems contained in the book) and also for the more advanced student that wants a book that focuses on problem solving, covering the material discussed below. What is in the book – 1) Chapter 1 - Kinematics, Part 1. This chapter covers the basics of Relativity – the Loss of Simultaneity, Time Dilation, Length Contraction and Velocity addition. This chapter, which comprises about a quarter of the book, is the most physical in the treatment of Relativity. It also discusses a bit of the historical development of the subject of Relativity. It is an excellent primer for the beginner. 2) Chapter 2 - Kinematics Part 2 – This is a much more advanced approach to the subjects covered in Chapter 1. It derives and uses the Lorentz Transformations and Minkowski Diagrams. It is a much more advanced and difficult treatment than that of Chapter 1 and would appeal to more advanced students. 3) Chapter 3 - Dynamics – This chapter covers Energy and Momentum and the interaction between particles. While some of this is also covered basic texts, the approach here and the numerous solved problems should be of interest to advanced beginners and for those seeking insights into problem solving. 4) Chapter 4 - 4-Vectors. This is a highly mathematical chapter, suitable for the most advanced beginners and beyond. 5) Chapter 5 – General Relativity. This is a very short introduction to the subject of General Relativity, focusing on the Equivalence Principle. It gives a feeling of what General Relativity is all about, without going into any of the complex mathematics that is required for a more in depth treatment. As such is it very good for the beginner. The book also contains 8 appendices, covering such topics as additional derivations of some equations covered in the text, problem solving strategies and the Taylor series. Like the rest of the book, these appendices are focused on the student and are meant to improve his or hers problem solving capabilities. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #290,732 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #75 in Relativity Physics (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (151) | | Dimensions | 8.5 x 0.61 x 11 inches | | ISBN-10 | 1542323517 | | ISBN-13 | 978-1542323512 | | Item Weight | 1.39 pounds | | Language | English | | Print length | 269 pages | | Publication date | January 20, 2017 | | Publisher | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform | ## Images ![Special Relativity: For the Enthusiastic Beginner - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61dMt3NqrML.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An excellent challenging text *by M***C on July 14, 2019* I was a physics major 30 years ago and went into an unrelated field. Back then I concentrated on Biophysics. My only exposure to Special Relativity was a 1 hour lecture which taught me essentially nothing. This is my first real exposure to SR. I am self studying in the hopes of understanding particle physics one day. This text is very aptly named. It is for the enthusiastic beginner. If you are not enthusiastic about learning SR, then read an easier book. You are going to burn out of this one. As Prof. Morin says, SR is counterintuitive. He does an excellent job of explaining SR in detail and has an excellent writing style, but you don't learn physics by reading. You have to really think about it over and over again before it starts to sink in. I had to read each chapter 3 times before I could move on to the next. I still don't feel I have a good grasp. SR is just one of those topics that you have to read about many times over many years before it really starts to make sense. This is an excellent place to start. I will read Tsamparlis one day, but before I do that I will reread this one. The explanations in this book are excellent, but the real strength of this book are the worked out problems. It is nice to see his solution once you have struggled with the problem for some time. No other book has this many worked out problems. In short, if you plan to study advanced physics, you will have to master this material at this level before you move on to advanced work. For some it may be better suited as a second read on SR than a first, but if you plan to move on to more advanced material, this is probably the best preparation for it as far as SR goes. A final note: Prof Morin starts the book with a plea to buy the book as it will inevitably show up on the internet for free one day. The good professor put a lot of work into this book. It is only $20. The paper quality and print quality are excellent. Please buy the book or kindle version. Give the good professor his due. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent for more than just beginners. *by M***T on January 17, 2018* The subtitle of this book – “For enthusiastic beginners”, may make this book seem like it is a beginning or introductory text, and while some of it is indeed for beginners it is much more. The book covers aspects of Special Relativity, such as Rapidity (a mathematical function used to solve some advanced problems) and four-vectors (another mathematical approach that is used for complex problems), which are not covered in basic texts. It is not the type of book that one reads casually, but is rather one that requires a considerable amount of time and effort – effort to absorb the material and even more effort to solve the numerous problems contained in the book, as the book is focused on problem solving with numerous solved examples and solved problems, plus exercises that are meant as homework problems for a course on Special Relativity, the solutions of which are therefore not provided. The book includes remarks – commentaries by the author that might be added by him if you were taking a class in person. The book has wide 2.5 inch outside margins for figures that also allow ample room for margin notes. I highly recommend this book for beginners (but for ones enthusiastic enough to tackle the problems contained in the book) and also for the more advanced student that wants a book that focuses on problem solving, covering the material discussed below. What is in the book – 1) Chapter 1 - Kinematics, Part 1. This chapter covers the basics of Relativity – the Loss of Simultaneity, Time Dilation, Length Contraction and Velocity addition. This chapter, which comprises about a quarter of the book, is the most physical in the treatment of Relativity. It also discusses a bit of the historical development of the subject of Relativity. It is an excellent primer for the beginner. 2) Chapter 2 - Kinematics Part 2 – This is a much more advanced approach to the subjects covered in Chapter 1. It derives and uses the Lorentz Transformations and Minkowski Diagrams. It is a much more advanced and difficult treatment than that of Chapter 1 and would appeal to more advanced students. 3) Chapter 3 - Dynamics – This chapter covers Energy and Momentum and the interaction between particles. While some of this is also covered basic texts, the approach here and the numerous solved problems should be of interest to advanced beginners and for those seeking insights into problem solving. 4) Chapter 4 - 4-Vectors. This is a highly mathematical chapter, suitable for the most advanced beginners and beyond. 5) Chapter 5 – General Relativity. This is a very short introduction to the subject of General Relativity, focusing on the Equivalence Principle. It gives a feeling of what General Relativity is all about, without going into any of the complex mathematics that is required for a more in depth treatment. As such is it very good for the beginner. The book also contains 8 appendices, covering such topics as additional derivations of some equations covered in the text, problem solving strategies and the Taylor series. Like the rest of the book, these appendices are focused on the student and are meant to improve his or hers problem solving capabilities. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good to learn from *by S***I on December 3, 2025* Very easy to read. ## Frequently Bought Together - Special Relativity: For the Enthusiastic Beginner - Problems and Solutions in Introductory Mechanics - Introduction to Classical Mechanics: With Problems and Solutions --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/39377229-special-relativity-for-the-enthusiastic-beginner](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/39377229-special-relativity-for-the-enthusiastic-beginner) --- *Product available on Desertcart Saudi Arabia* *Store origin: SA* *Last updated: 2026-05-14*