Why people recommend it
Gravitation by Charles W. Misner, Kip Thorne, and John Wheeler is a massive, encyclopedic physics textbook detailing the principles of general relativity and black holes. On StarTalk Radio, Neil deGrasse Tyson recommended the weighty volume for advanced budding cosmologists, describing it as a big, hairy, and audacious work filled with equations. During an episode featuring science advisor Kip Thorne, the co-author discussed the history of the 1973 publication, noting that it went to press just after Ray Weiss wrote his seminal paper on gravitational waves, and admitted he had not yet fully studied that paper at the time. In another episode, Tyson and guest Brian Greene marveled at the sheer scale of the reference manual, noting that it spans roughly 1,200 pages packed entirely with complex mathematical equations. Greene specifically acknowledged John Wheeler as one of the legendary co-authors of the text, often referred to simply by the authors' surnames as the Misner-Thorne-Wheeler book. Across multiple appearances, astrophysicists continually praised the publication as arguably the most famous and definitive textbook on relativity ever written, cementing its status as an essential cornerstone for advanced students and researchers exploring the extreme edges of astrophysics and gravitational physics.
Who recommended it
- Neil deGrasse Tyson Recommended
Neil deGrasse Tyson — 1 mention
“just cuz it's big an audacious big hairy and audacious is a book called gravitation mm-hmm and it's written by three authors Misner thorne and wheeler”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 4
“In this book published in 1973, we went to press just after Ray Weiss wrote his seminal paper, I had not yet really studied that paper fully.”
“Okay, uh, he's co-author of like the most famous relativity book there ever was! It's called Gravitation!”
“But in terms of his book, he wrote an encyclopedic book on gravity and black holes, which is about, you know, 1,200 pages just filled with equations!”
“So John Wheeler is one of the authors of this Misner-Thorne-Wheeler!”