Gravitation and Relativity

International Series in Natural Philosophy, Volume 86: Gravitation and Relativity provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of the theories of gravitation. This book applies the elementary tools of special relativity to the problem of generalizing Newton's theory of gravitation. Organized into 10 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the principle of relativity, which asserts theta there is no meaningful way of defining absolute velocity. This text then presents a discussion of the Eötvös-Dicke experiments that established the identity of inertial and gravitational mass. Other chapters consider the equations of electrodynamics derived by starting from the equations of electrostatics. This book discusses as well gravitational redshift, deflection of light, and radar echo delay. The final chapter attempts to establish the connection with general relativity and discusses how black holes may manifest themselves to the astronomer. This book is a valuable resource for physicists and undergraduate students in physics.