General Relativity and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Trade in Yours
For a £7.99 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
See 1 customer image
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.
Start reading General Relativity on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

General Relativity [Paperback]

Wald (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £37.00
Price: £28.05 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £8.95 (24%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Thursday, 20 June? Choose Express delivery at checkout. Details

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £21.04   -- --
Paperback £28.05   -- --
Microfilm --   -- --
Trade In this Item for up to £7.99
Trade in General Relativity for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £7.99, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Card, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more

Book Description

Publication Date: 1 Jun 1984 | ISBN-10: 0226870332 | ISBN-13: 978-0226870335
"Wald's book is clearly the first textbook on general relativity with a totally modern point of view; and it succeeds very well where others are only partially successful. The book includes full discussions of many problems of current interest which are not treated in any extant book, and all these matters are considered with perception and understanding."—S. Chandrasekhar

"A tour de force: lucid, straightforward, mathematically rigorous, exacting in the analysis of the theory in its physical aspect."—L. P. Hughston, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Truly excellent. . . . A sophisticated text of manageable size that will probably be read by every student of relativity, astrophysics, and field theory for years to come."—James W. York, Physics Today

Frequently Bought Together

General Relativity + Cosmology
Price For Both: £76.23

Buy the selected items together
  • Cosmology by Steven Weinberg Hardcover £48.18

Product details

  • Paperback: 506 pages
  • Publisher: University of Chicago Press (1 Jun 1984)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0226870332
  • ISBN-13: 978-0226870335
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 3.6 x 20 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 317,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Robert M. Wald Page
Robert M. Wald
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

About the Author

Robert M. Wald is professor in the Department of Physics and the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Space, Time, and Gravity: The Theory of the Big Bang and Black Holes, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars
8 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Advanced, NOT the TELEPHONE BOOK 5 April 2001
By Javier Álvarez
Format:Paperback
Wald's title is great and one of the best for a graduate course. It treats clearly with the mathematics, the Einstein equation and their conclusions, demonstrating every assert or theorem. However it isn't a book for beginners or for a complete reference of the subject. It centers its attention with black hole thermodynamics, singularity theorems, causality and things like spinors. The fundaments, and above all, the underlying ideas of General Relativity are treated very quickly, but it is ideal for people who know general relativity and want to increase his skills in order to become a "relativistic expert".

I think that this should be the relativity references (in order):

* Beginner: Spacetime Physics (Wheeler, Taylor), A journey into spacetime and gravitation (Wheeler), Exploring Black Holes (Wheeler, Taylor), A short course in General Relativity (Schutz; you only need multivariable calculus).

* "Middle": Spacetime Physics, A short course in General Relativity, Geometrical Methods of Mathematical Physics (Schutz), Gravitation (Misner, Thorne, Wheeler) = the telephone book.

* Advanced: A short course in General Relativity, Geometrical Methods of Mathematical Physics, Gravitation, (only part of) Geometry Topology and Physics (Nakahara), General Relativity (Wald), The Large structure of SpaceTime (Hawking).

Of course, these are only my orientative guidelines. Gravitation and Cosmology by Weinberg is a great book, but I don't like it because of his not geometric approach, all of above treat the modern point of view of Differential Geometry, clear, beauty and intuitive, despite not being the approach used by Einstein.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The textbook of choice for the discerning student! 16 Oct 1998
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Offers the clearest introduction available (using the best notation) to the mathematical background (e.g. the connection). Concise, careful, and clear. Particularly strong on singularity theorems, causality, and black hole thermodynamics. Narrower coverage than Stephani or d'Inverno, but provides the best introduction to these topics. Includes problems. Should appeal particularly to mathematically minded readers. This book might look daunting at first glance but I think it is actually very "reader-friendly"-- I find I appreciate it more each time I return to it.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Not for begginers. 8 Aug 2012
By Manuel García Fernández
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book covers a wide range of different topics in General Relativity, from Einstein's Equation and gravitational waves, to black holes, passing trough Cosmology and differents types of universes and their evolution.
The book begins with three chapters with preliminary mathematics (Riemann geometry, manifolds and tensors) deep but too short, so one should complete this part with another book on Tensor Calculus.
The treatment of the topics is formal but too abstrac and it has no examples or worked problems, so if it's the first time you read something on General Relativity it would be too hard for you.
So, it's a good book, but you need a solid basis to a good understanding.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Great graduate text, but not for beginners 30 Jun 2010
By Alpha
Format:Paperback
This is wonderful advanced text on general relativity. It covers many of the modern developments in GR (e.g. singularity theorems, black hole thermodynamics) that are hard to find anywhere else, and it does this with plenty of mathematical rigour. Although the writing comes over as quite dry and uninspiring sometimes, this book is still an extremely valuable resource. It's often a straight choice between reading Wald and digging up research papers from the 1970s.

A word of warning: Unless you are an absolute genius, you have no hope of understanding this book unless you have done general relativity and differential geometry before. "General relativity" by Hobson, Efstathiou and Lasenby adopts a simpler but more intuitive approach to differential geometry and doesn't gloss over the basic physical principles. Do not expect to learn differential geometry from Wald either - try "Modern Mathematical Physics" by Szekeres first.

However, as long as you are ready for it, you will find Wald's exposition very readable and very rewarding.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is indispensable for every theoretical physicist. 8 July 1998
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The excellent book by Robert Wald is really indispensable for every active theoretical physicist. I completely agree with the characterization given for this book in its presentation by Amazon.com.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Good mathematical introduction 20 Mar 2002
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Wald is a rare textbook that does not flinch away from mathematical technicalities. It is to be recommended to those theorists with a solid grounding in pure maths.
However, it is not quite the perfect mathmos' GR book. The section on Differential Geometry seems rather clumsily presented for one who has had a course in Differential Manifolds and Cohomology.
Of course such knowledge may be useless for practical purposes in Relativity. Therefore overall, Wald is a good book for those mathematically minded and wanting a career as Relativity theorists.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
7 of 12 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Not a book for beginners 6 Jun 2001
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
If you are taking you first course in general relativity this book is not for you. Wald was the recommended text for my undergraduate course on general relativity. It is too complicated and too rigorous for first timers. General relativity is not an easy topic at the best of times. If you are a beginner make it easier for yourself and buy a book aimed at beginners. Having said all that, Wald is not a bad book just a difficult one. Many, many concepts within the subject area are covered very well. My lecturer thought highly of this book. So, if you already have a grounding in General Relativity, and in particular some knowledge of set theory, then this book would certainly give you a deeper understanding of the theory.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      No discussions yet

      Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       

      Search Customer Discussions
      Search all Amazon discussions
         

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback


      Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges