Excerpt from The Theory of Relativity This introduction to the Theory of Relativity is based in part upon a course of lectures delivered in University College, London, 1912-13. The treatment, however, has been made much more systematical, and the subject matter has been extended very con siderably; but, throughout, the attempt has been made to confine the reader's attention to matters of prime importance. With this aim in view, many particular problems even of great interest have not been touched upon. On the other hand, it seemed advantageous to trace the connexion of the modern theory with the theories and ideas that preceded it. And the first three chapters, therefore, are devoted to the fundamental ideas of space and time underlying classical physics, and to the electromagnetic theories of Maxwell, hertz-heaviside and Lorentz, from the last of which Einstein's theory of relativity was directly derived. In the exposition of the theory itself free use has been made not only of the matrix method of representation employed by Minkowski, but even more of the language of quaternions. Very little indeed of these mathematical methods is required to follow the exposition, and this little is given in Chapter V., in a form which will be at once accessible to those acquainted with the elements of the ordinary vector algebra. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.