Review of On Gravity: A Brief Tour of a Weighty Subject by Anthony Zee

Phillip Helbig

The Observatory, 138, 1266, 255–256 (October 2018)


This is a book review of On Gravity: A Brief Tour of a Weighty Subject by Anthony Zee. This is a popular-science book on gravity, as the title suggests, brief. The book starts and ends with gravitational waves; the rest of the book covers what one might expect from a book at this level, with two exceptions: an appendix (more mathematical than the rest of the book) explains space--time, curved space, and curved space--time in an easy-to-understand way; and, unusually for such a book, the action principle is discussed extensively. Although the material covered is similar to that in other introductory books about gravity, the presentation is somewhat different. The sometimes too breezy style might annoy those who are looking for something not found in similar books, while the discussion of action, curvature, _etc._ might throw off those looking for an introductory discussion. However, those with some basic knowledge of gravity can find introductory discussions of topics usually found only in more advanced works, while the colloquial style might appeal to some, perhaps other, readers.


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