"An excellent introduction to complicated but fascinating subject." — Booklist

This compelling book offers readers with no technical expertise beyond arithmetic an enlightening tour of the paradoxes inherent in the special theory of relativity, guided by a pair of eminent theoretical physicists.

Novel Prize physicist L. D. Landau and his distinguished colleague G. B. Rumer, employ a simple and straightforward manner to illuminate relativity theory's more subtle and elusive aspects. Using such familiar objects as trains, rulers, and clocks, the authors explain the reasoning behind seemingly self-contradictory ideas in which the relative seems absolute, but the absolute proves to be relative. A series of playful cartoons highlights the authors' witty observations on the laws governing inertia, the speed of light, the relationship of work and mass, and other relativistic concepts.