Simple books on 4-vectors

From: Oz (oz_at_farmeroz.port995.com)
Date: 10/03/04 

Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2004 08:49:32 +0000 (UTC)

Please do not be shocked.

I would quite like to read up on 4-vectors and if possible their care
and feeding with respect to simple mechanics and the faraday tensor.

I am completely uninterested in relating this back to 'conventional
representation'. For example I have absolutely no interest in any proofs
showing how it relates back to maxwell or newton per se.

The book needs to be relatively cheap, and I would expect it to be short
and obtainable in the UK.

It seems to me from my gleanings here that forms are very closely
associated with this formulation. I rather get the impression that forms
are to 4D as calculus is to 3D, although they are basically the same
thing.

In essence I want to remove any baggage associated with the physics I
learned at school (obviously some concepts will remain) and start
learning as if I was at a school in a universe where c was 100mph.

Because I am of limited IQ, I suspect that I should be using a matrix
notation and thus probably a co-ordinate based viewpoint. I hope if I
ever grok it adequately it will not be that hard to move to a co-
ordinate-free viewpoint subsequently, at least in principle.

The problem I seem to fall down on is that conventional textbooks tend
to race through the basics at high speed on their way to distant more
complex destinations. Introduced at the top of page 1, they are into
forms by the bottom of the page. I am looking for something slower. A
first chapter on (3+1)D representation. A second chapter on the
equivalent of newtons mechanics. A third chapter on its calculus and so
on.

Does such a book exist? 

-- 
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
Use oz@farmeroz.port995.com [ozacoohdb@despammed.com functions].
BTOPENWORLD address has ceased.       DEMON address has ceased.

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