Why does E = MC squared.

[GJBC]

it is hard for me to comment on t content or style of the book as i have not read it. Prof Cox is appealing to the mass audience whether we like it or not. Having done stargazing live event where we had over 500 people through our observatories in Dyffryn Gardens cardiff earlier this year i got a chance to speak with many of them it was surprising how many were drawn in by his simplistic delivery. once again like it or not it works. societies and not just astronomical societies all around the country picked up new members, some came armed with knowledge some had very little but wanted to know/learn more. that is where the producers have hit the right formula. how many people know more this year than last because of the series and the resulting books.

I also manned one of the stands that was present at one of the caged monkey gigs he done. and there we found a totally different market the feed back from the public was unanimous in saying they made the subject interesting and easy to understand. "makes you think but not to technical we cant understand it" was another. yet there were some who were not happy that it was dummed down and they were slightly disappointed. but they turned up and stayed till the end.

i have two book sitting by the side of me as i type

Structure and evolution of the stars

Black holes Quasars and the universe

have i read them NO one looks readable with pictorial representations and graphs and the other is so full of equations and intimate detail on the full facts Right or wrong (as they are older books) it looks like a hard read. it is more than likely good information. but info i will never want to know much detail of

so we have two style of writing one hi brow and one lower bro (NO OFFENCE)

written for different audiences many of us would/will prefer the high bro full technical detail many of us just want an overview lower level i will take your word for it view of things. it sounds to me as if that second concept is where the book of Prof Cox is sitting.

and to finish "how many of us will get it for Christmas" whether we want it or not and we will smile when we open it and say thanks i was going to get this. then how many will read and enjoy the one thing we thought we would not.

[imarcs]

Yes, other people have done it too (particularly Bais whose SR explanation is a favourite of mine) but few have done it as well.

J.

Is this the one you're talknig about James?

Very Special Relativity An Illustrated Guide ONL : An Illustrated Guide: Amazon.co.uk: Sander Bais: Books

[jamespels]

Yep, well worth a read. Looks far too small to contain a useful description but it is a real 'jeep' book. First he introduces space and time, then spacetime, them goes from there. Each page spread contains one or more spacetime diagrams illustrating a concept and a brief description, so each page is a step along the way to understanding. Some of the steps are pretty big but all are manageable.

[imarcs]

Thanks James.

[Damo636]

It's like an X-factor winner doing a cover of a rock classic and selling a bundle! Jessun/

I have to admit i am a bit of a Coxy fanboy and thoroughly enjoyed his tv series. If he was on the Xfactor i might actually watch it! I can see it now, week four, and after being in the bottom two for a second successive week, we get to watch an intimate clip of himself and his mentor Louis in floods of tears over the demise of our sun in a billion or so years time