Relativity

fantastically understandable reads like the guy is in the room with you the horse's mouth

I am just an average Joe trying to learn a basic understanding physics ans the contents description was very misleading. I listened to the 1st disk and just could not get anything out of it.

I consider myself pretty smart, even geeky, but I also consider myself a more-or-less average joe. So, even though I appreciated this subject-matter more than the average joe would, I didn't appreciate how it was presented. It was too "pedantic, rigorous, and lofty" for my taste. Though it did more-or-less satisfy my curiousity about the finer parts of the theory, and physics concepts themselves. It was hard for me to casually listen to it, and conceptually grasp it without replaying at least certain parts of it. You would like it, though, if you like a "rigorous" treatment of (the basic concepts of) physics. Essentially, though, it was over 2 hours of "only" eventually leading the listener to the proposition that the universe is (most probably) spherical and infinite yet unbounded. And, of course, that motions and spacetime are relative, that gravity curves spacetime, and the "propogation of light in vacuua is rectilinear and uniform in the absence of gravity".

The description of this book is a bit misleading, to say the least. I am not a physicist by any means - I have a bachelors in Computer Science. That being said, I took a number of physics courses in college, a few of which covered relativity. I wouldn't say there are any concepts in this book that are particularly unreasonable for the average person to understand, even without prior introduction to relativity. The issue is the language is so gratuitous in nature that the listener is consumed with deciphering the vocabulary and hardly has time to absorb the actual concept being discussed before the next topic is introduced. This is pretty ironic, since Einstein spends a paragraph in the beginning mentioning how his goal was present the topic clearly for the benefit of the reader. Still, he (obviously) has great knowledge of the subject and cleared up a few questions I had from the past. If you're up for some good science and don't mind very dry language, check it out.

I had a hard time paying attention to the abstract, and dry details that the author wrote. He speaks scientific language, but without the mathematics. I've listened to several scientific books, understood and enjoyed them, and I was excited when this one came to my door. But it was not what I expected.

I have never before considered myself an idiot until I read this book.