Relativity

The present book is intended as far as possible to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who from a general scientific and philosophical point of view are interested in the theory but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. The work presumes a standard of education corresponding to that of a university matriculation examination and despite the shortness of the book a fair amount of patience and force of will on the part of the reader. The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavor to present the main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form and on the whole in the sequence and connection in which they actually originated. In the interest of clearness it appeared to me inevitable that I should repeat myself frequently without paying the slightest attention to the elegance of the presentation. I adhered scrupulously to the precept of that brilliant theoretical physicist L. Boltzmann according to whom matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor and to the cobbler. I make no pretence of having withheld from the reader difficulties which are inherent to the subject. On the other hand I have purposely treated the empirical physical foundations of the theory in a step-motherly fashion so that readers unfamiliar with physics may not feel like the wanderer who was unable to see the forest for the trees. May the book bring someone a few happy hours of suggestive thought! December 1916 A. EINSTEIN