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Relativity: The Special and General Theory
3
Albert Einstein
Relativity: The Special and General Theory
Preface
(December, 1916)
The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity
to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the
theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. The
work presumes a standard of education corresponding to that of a university matriculation
examination, and, despite the shortness of the book, a fair amount of patience and force of will on
the part of the reader. The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the main
ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection
in which they actually originated. In the interest of clearness, it appeared to me inevitable that I
should repeat myself frequently, without paying the slightest attention to the elegance of the
presentation. I adhered scrupulously to the precept of that brilliant theoretical physicist L.
Boltzmann, according to whom matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor and to the cobbler. I
make no pretence of having withheld from the reader difficulties which are inherent to the subject.
On the other hand, I have purposely treated the empirical physical foundations of the theory in a
"step?motherly" fashion, so that readers unfamiliar with physics may not feel like the wanderer who
was unable to see the forest for the trees. May the book bring some one a few
happy hours of suggestive thought!
December, 1916
A. EINSTEIN
Next: The Physical Meaning of Geometrical Propositions
Relativity: The Special and General Theory