Books on Einstein and his theories abound. However, this book is
uniquely different. It presents key concepts in Special and General
Relativity, in verse form. The aim is to make Einstein's insights
more fun to learn. It uses rhyme and rhythm to render reading
memorable and thus pleasurable. Moreover, what is pleasurable may
foster a better understanding, as well as retention, of ideas. Use
of verse apparently worked effectively in ancient times: in the
Iliad and Odyssey of Homer among the Greeks; in the Vedas and
Upanishads of ancient India; both rhyme, in the form of
alliteration, and rhythm in Beowulf among the Anglo-Saxons, etc.
The target reader is college-educated, or college student in third
year, or anyone willing to puzzle it out, who desires to understand
why time slows down and lengths contract when objects are in
relative motion; how Science, Einstein's theories in particular,
can contribute to answering the perennial question: what it is to
be human; how to time travel to the future by staying young; etc.
Relativity has a reputation of being difficult. For example,
curvature of spacetime seems so abstruse, so forbidding a concept.
But, do not disarm yourself prematurely. Do not be intimidated. As
it turns out, curvature of spacetime is tidal gravity, the cause of
familiar ocean tides. You may even have a gut feel for it. This
book will not teach you how to solve problems in Relativity. Nor
will it teach you how to prove The shortest distance takes the
longest time. No, we will spend our time grasping Einstein's
insights, their implications on Reality and on mind; and amid our
quest, on what it means to be human. More fun to learn does not
mean that verse form is the lazy road to learning. It does not mean
that verse form makes the difficult easy, or, the rough, plain. No,
the difficult remains difficult; the rough remains rough. And to
grasp it, you have to exert a determined, sustained effort and be
willing to stretch your mind to accommodate the wild notions in
Relativity. The idea motivating this book is to make the stretching
more enjoyable relative to prose by using the rhyme-rhythm features
of verse. But, stretch your mind, you have to. There is no royal,
poetic road to learning There is a feature in our history, that
stands out in view of our concerns in conveying knowledge-a feature
that the ancients aptly used. It is the oral tradition. Since the
first humans appeared, oral tradition was the sole means in
transmitting knowledge for a very long time, indeed. If we fit the
whole time since the first humans lived into a year, then writing
started only about the morning of 30th of December. That is a huge
time in which oral tradition operated, i.e. about 99.5% of our time
as humans. What does this imply? We transmitted information orally;
and we received information aurally This oral-aural conveyance was
the way for all information, including that of knowledge. In
addition, during the five hundred thousand years or so, oral
tradition honed our brains to receive knowledge aurally. To me,
this implies that our brains have a natural deep resonance to
features of language in the oral tradition. The key language
features in the oral tradition are the rhymes and rhythms of verse.
I wrote this book in verse, inspired by this thought: to make the
most out of the resonant structures in our brains engendered by
oral tradition, to convey the deep insights of Einstein on Reality.
It is my sincere wish that Einstein's ideas will find recognition
in the public understanding and thus inform the public outlook. I
invite you, everyone: Hop in with me, a time machine we ride,
Intent on chasing space-time concepts wild; To fathom Einstein's
insights into Reality, In his Special and General Relativity. Like
Wordsworth, a lonely cloud wandering, Through space and time we
will be winging, Not to appreciate the daffodils of Nature; But to
understand Nature's Architecture
General
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