Preface
In part, our motivation for writing this book is the classes that we have taught on the subject at our respective universities, Tufts (A. E.) and Central Connecticut State (T. R.). Many, but not all, of our students were science fi ction buff s. They ranged from present or prospective physics majors to fi ne arts majors; several of the latter did very well and were among the most fun to teach. The courses aff orded us an opportunity, unusual for theoretical physicists, to give undergraduates some access to our own re- search, using essentially no mathematics beyond high school algebra. We are grateful to all of the students in those classes over the years for their enthusi- asm and intellectual stimulation. Our aim here was to write a book for people with diff erent levels of math and physics backgrounds, skills, and interests. Since we believe that what cur- rently is on off er is either too watered down or too sensationalistic, we decided to try our hand. The level of this book is intended for a person who is perhaps a Star Trek fan or who likes to read Scientifi c American occasionally, but who fi nds it not detailed enough for a good understanding of the subject matter. We as- sume that our reader knows high school algebra, but no knowledge of higher mathematics is assumed. A basic physics course, although helpful, is not nec- essary for understanding. However, the reader will need to expend some intel- lectual eff ort in grappling with the concepts to come. We realize that not every reader will be interested in the same level of detail. Therefore many (although not all!) of the mathematical details have been placed in appendixes, for those who are interested in more “meat.” Our feeling is that even readers who want to “skip the math” will still fi nd plenty of topics to interest them in our book. So, although we do not expect every reader to understand every single item in the book, we have aimed to provide a stimulating experience for all readers. Interactive Quicktime demonstrations that illustrate some of the concepts in the book can be found at http://press.uchicago.edu/sites/timewarp/.
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