Written for intermediate undergraduate students and independent learners with basic calculus, this Guide covers all of the core ideas of Special Relativity. It does so by using a modern, geometrical approach, which prepares the reader well for further study of General Relativity.
This compact guide presents key features of general relativity to help students understand its core ideas and the basics of differential geometry. It describes how general covariance and the equivalence principle motivate Einstein's theory of gravitation and introduces the mathematical technology which allows us to understand Einstein's equations.