Gravitation: Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler: 9780716703440: Amazon.com: Books

Customers say

Customers find the book provides a comprehensive overview of general relativity. They consider it a good value for the money, with an affordable price. However, opinions differ on its weight - some find it heavy and dense, while others say it's too big and light.

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic in the Field

  Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2024

  The authors Misner, Thorne and Wheeler (MTW) produced a tour de force with this book. A must have for anyone with any interest in physics. The book is weighty in accordance with its name. The illustrations and mathematical details and descriptions are brilliant. At this stage I have read a several early chapters and dipped into later chapters of interest. This is a very solid and dense book due to the material, so not a light quick read despite the excellent explanations of the authors.

  The book Gravitation is frequently referenced by other books so is great to have it on hand to get a good and detailed explanation of any idea you might read elsewhere.

  The hard cover version of this book, republished by Princeton University Press (October 24, 2017) is excellent and really does justice to the quality of the work.

  5 people found this helpful

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars An all-purpose utility for your home office needs

  Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2020

  When my PhD adviser recommended me this classic of general relativity, I was not prepared for the breadth of use that I would find for it! Pouring over pages and pages of this masterpiece, from the foundings of special relativity to the differential geometry that underlies general relativity to the chapters on gravitational waves that portend the era of gravitational wave astronomy we now find ourselves in, you quickly realize that the true beauty of this textbook exists outside its pages. Truly, following the first week of purchase until now (amounting to about two months), I have found that I got my money's worth without ever opening the inky black hard cover of this absolute unit. From its smooth, tactile surface to its brick-like dimensions, I have found so many more uses for Gravitation than I ever gambled for. In the evening, after a long day of drawn-out Zoom calls, Gravitation is the nightstand on which I empty the contents of my pocket or leave other books. Before, my neck would hurt from constantly craning forward to the blue light of my laptop screen. But, with Gravitation, I've found an excellent laptop stand, and my neck hurts no longer. When my wrist hurt from reaching towards that low, low mouse all day, I put the mouse on top of Gravitation and, aghast, found that Misner, Thorne and Wheeler had done it again. This masterful work of theirs healed my ailing wrist. On the occasion I needed to hold my door open, I would find that other textbooks (such as Gravity, by Hartle), never had the disposition to be up for the job. Indeed, the door would simply close anyways, and I would cry, "Why, God? Why haven't you given me a textbook with the sheer mass necessary to hold this door open?" And, I remember that one clear July morning when Gravitation arrived on my doorstep and I felt it in my hands, I knew: my prayers had been answered. Dear friends, I make no higher recommendation than for you to purchase this textbook.
  

  

  5.0 out of 5 stars

  An all-purpose utility for your home office needs

  Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2020

  When my PhD adviser recommended me this classic of general relativity, I was not prepared for the breadth of use that I would find for it! Pouring over pages and pages of this masterpiece, from the foundings of special relativity to the differential geometry that underlies general relativity to the chapters on gravitational waves that portend the era of gravitational wave astronomy we now find ourselves in, you quickly realize that the true beauty of this textbook exists outside its pages. Truly, following the first week of purchase until now (amounting to about two months), I have found that I got my money's worth without ever opening the inky black hard cover of this absolute unit. From its smooth, tactile surface to its brick-like dimensions, I have found so many more uses for Gravitation than I ever gambled for. In the evening, after a long day of drawn-out Zoom calls, Gravitation is the nightstand on which I empty the contents of my pocket or leave other books. Before, my neck would hurt from constantly craning forward to the blue light of my laptop screen. But, with Gravitation, I've found an excellent laptop stand, and my neck hurts no longer. When my wrist hurt from reaching towards that low, low mouse all day, I put the mouse on top of Gravitation and, aghast, found that Misner, Thorne and Wheeler had done it again. This masterful work of theirs healed my ailing wrist. On the occasion I needed to hold my door open, I would find that other textbooks (such as Gravity, by Hartle), never had the disposition to be up for the job. Indeed, the door would simply close anyways, and I would cry, "Why, God? Why haven't you given me a textbook with the sheer mass necessary to hold this door open?" And, I remember that one clear July morning when Gravitation arrived on my doorstep and I felt it in my hands, I knew: my prayers had been answered. Dear friends, I make no higher recommendation than for you to purchase this textbook.
  

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  161 people found this helpful

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars Worth it's weight, and boy is it heavy.

  Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2019

  I bought this book to try and brush up on some of the physics that it's been a while since I took, in order to defend my dissertation in theoretical physics later this spring. This book, in the hardback form will put a dent in your leg if you leave it there too long. I'm a physician, and I remember when I made the mistake of buying the single hard bound version of "Cecil's Textbook of Internal Medicine," and I had to lug that monster everyday all over the campus. I played college football, so it's not like I couldn't handle it, but it was a bit unwieldy. I would love to see a version of this that came in two softcover volumes, but, for me, it's not worth docking it a star over.
  Otherwise this is a great, user friendly treatise on the subject. I could see reading this book just for the enjoyment of learning the subject better. It's much better than the textbook I used back when dinosaurs stomped on the Terra. Of course there were only 4 planets known at the time, so this book is definitely an upgrade. If you're looking for a way to understand the cosmos better, I've never seen a better book.
  Later 'taters.
  dc
  

  19 people found this helpful

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars A volume which bends nearby space-time

  Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2014

  This book with its three distinguished authors is the definition of a classic. Beyond its considerable heft, sufficient in itself to bend nearby space-time, it presents the material in a way which is intuitive and rigorous to the physics … but in a language familiar to the modern presentation of the mathematics.
  The student is often confronted with the unfamiliar notation of Einstein’s way of presenting differential geometry, and his General Theory. This same student who has not seen GR before, but who has taken college physics, and learned advanced calculus, feels familiar with the language of differential forms, tangent spaces, inner products, and manifolds … but often feels lost in the tensorial presentation. Do I already know this math? … Is there some vast theory I must master before even reading this material?
  Wheeler et al. solve this problem by providing a bridge between all three perspectives and languages. So one can see the physical theory, the Einstein notation and the modern manifold presentation all connected, and all describing the same thing. Masterful.
  

  41 people found this helpful

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