Introduction to Relativity (PDF)

Paul Bruma is a French engineer who graduated from Institut Polytechnique - Telecom, Paris. This curriculum includes a broad program in mathematics and physics, equivalent to a Master's degree in science. After a career with the international telecom equipment manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent (former Bell Labs), Paul Bruma resumed physics studies, which was his favorite discipline as a student. Regarding Relativity, Paul Bruma found that most text books lack explanations and are very mathematically oriented. This explains why this subject appears quite complicated to students, and many frequently zap from one book to another in search of the missing explanations in their text books. Relativity being an essential subject, Paul Bruma took up the challenge of making a book that contains all explanations and in a manner which is as accessible as possible while always being absolutely rigorous. This induced him to adopt a more physical approach than most authors. In his previous career in the high tech industry, Paul Bruma had many opportunities to write technical documents explaining complex subjects and to train teams. In this domain, if technical specifications are not written in a clear, detailed, step by step and unambiguous manner, the implementation teams won't work effectively and the outcome will likely differ from what was intended. In contrast, academic authors often consider that students should fill by themselves some missing steps or explanations as part of the pedagogical process. Paul Bruma believes that this method is not the best one for Relativity because it is a domain where common sense often misleads.