I really did not know his name was "Rudolf."

Geometry, Relativity & The Fourth Dimension – Rudy Rucker (1977)

            This was Rudy Rucker’s first book, a non-fiction exploration into the 4^th dimension (Time) and the weirdness that Einstein’s Theories of Relativity brought to light.  While it is not as engrossing as his later books, and does not have the same smart-ass persona that his cyberpunk novels of the 80’s did, it does help to create visual representations of topics such as curved space-time, the illusion of the passage of time, etc.  I enjoyed the lessons on these topics although I had read a lot about them before.  Mr. Rucker’s descriptions helped me understand these ideas better, however, and it was interesting to read a book from almost 40 years ago that deals with topics which are now seen as fairly commonplace as far as theoretical physics go.  

Ladies and gentlemen, the Fourth Dimension.

 

            Rudy Rucker is a great educator and a master at sharing complex ideas and placing these in a context that a non-mathematician can comprehend.  Not the most “fun” book I have read, but cool nonetheless.