On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies
TL;DR — Special relativity, 1905, twenty-three pages, no citations. The most famous paper in physics as it was actually written.
Twenty-three pages, and it cites nothing. Einstein’s 1905 paper introducing special relativity, in English translation.
Worth having in the original form rather than in summary for one reason: the argument is almost entirely elementary. There is no advanced machinery — it proceeds from two postulates and clock-synchronisation thought experiments to the transformation equations. The famous result is reached by reasoning a careful reader can follow line by line.
A useful corrective whenever a field starts to believe that importance requires apparatus.
Where this came from
23 pages. A copy is archived locally against link rot; the header links the original source.