This course has moved to Moodle a long time ago (in 2022).
Please go to the current year's MP352 Moodle pages when they become available for further information on
this course.
However, for the curious among you, who can't wait, below is a list of
books and online resources that can be useful in preparation for this
course, and generally good for generating an understanding of special
relativity.
This list is heavily based on a list generated around 2021 by Masud Haque , who taught the
course for a number of years. - I have mainly removed dead links. Enjoy!
List of textbooks and other sources
Special Relativity challenges our intuition and takes effort to
digest; it is worth reading material on the subject regularly (every
week of term!) and to consult multiple sources.
Main Texts from previous years :
In previous years, there were two separate courses within the EP and MP
programmes which covered special relativity. These are now (2025/6) being
replaced by one course for students in both Experimental and
Theoretical Physics.
Below, I list the main texts for the preceding courses, which remain useful.
MP course: much of the
material in the MP course
(though not all)
was covered by the
notes (linked below) written by
Prof. Charles Nash when he taught the course.
It is still worth studying these.
Special Relativity:
Daniel Kleppner and Robert Kolenkov An Introduction to Mechanics, 2nd edition (2014),
Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-19811-0 (Hardback)
General Relativity:
Bradley Caroll and Dale Ostlie An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, 2nd edition (2006),
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 978-0-805-30402-2
Other Textbooks:
There are many textbooks covering special relativity. Our library
carries a number of these textbooks.
Special relativity is also covered in many
textbooks on classical mechanics or
electrodynamics/electromagnetism, and often summarized in the
beginning of texts on general relativity or particle physics.
I list a selection below.
(I omit publisher and publication date; should be easy enough to find.)
Zee,
Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell
This book targets General Relativity, but on the way (in Part III)
treats Special Relativity in detail.
Chapters 11 -- 13 of:
Morin, Introduction to Classical Mechanics Very thorough treatment. Excellent problems and exercises.
Covers the more basic half or so of what we will do in
this module.
The chapter on relativity in:
Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics Very clear and physical treatment.
(Relativity is in Chapter 10 in the old edition I own; chapter number
varies with edition.)
Chapters 12 -- 14 of:
Kleppner & Kolenkow, Introduction to Mechanics, 2nd ed.
Very pedagogical. Covers maybe the more basic one-third or so of what
we do in this module. The level is intermediate between the
Resnick-Halliday level and the level of this module.
Chapters 15 -- 17 of:
The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume I
A classic. Free to read online, on this website.
Somewhat outdated terminology/convention, but should still be
worthwhile to read. Covers the more basic one-third or so of what we
do in this module.
Cheng, Relativity, gravitation, and cosmology Special relativity is reviewed as a prerequisite to General
Relativity. Very clear treatment.
Special Relativity is treated in Chapter 2 in the 1st edition, but
broken up into chapters 2 and 3 in the 2nd edition.
Chapter 1 of:
Landau & Lifshitz, The Classical Theory of
Fields This is Volume 2 of the famous `Course of Theoretical Physics'.
This series is generally considered challenging.
Chapter 7 of:
Goldstein, Classical Mechanics
Concise treatment of some of the more advanced aspects.
Chapters 1 -- 4 (and bits of chapters 5,6) of:
Woodhouse, Special Relativity
Maybe slightly more mathematical than our treatment.
Chapters 1 -- 5 of:
Rindler, Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological
Chapters 29 -- 34 of:
Greiner, Classical Mechanics: Point Particles and Relativity
Bais, Very Special Relativity: An Illustrated Guide
Avoids formalism and teaches
through pictures (through carefully analyzed spacetime diagrams).
Steane, Relativity Made Relatively Easy
The chapter on relativity in: Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics
Concise treatment of some of the more advanced aspects.
Material available online:
Please let me know if any of the links don't work.
MP352 should make you comfortable with 4-vectors
and Index notation. This is covered in many of the
textbooks or notes linked above. In addition, the following links might help.
This video explains
index notation in good detail, but is almost an hour long.
In MP352 we discuss the Lorentz group (together
with the rotation group and the Poincare group); these are not
covered in more elementary treatments or in Nash's notes. The
following links might help.