Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
PHOENIX BOOKS, INC. (2006), Edition: Special Anniversary Edition, Kindle Edition
Description
Science. Nonfiction. HTML: Stephen Hawking... "...has overcome a crippling disease to become the supernova of world physics. Unable to write, or even speak clearly, he is leaping beyond the big bang, to the dance of geometry' that created the universe". Timothy Ferris, Vanity Fair. "...can explain the complexities of cosmological physics with an engaging combination of clarity and wit... His is a brain of extraordinary power." The New York Review of Books. "...clearly possesses a natural teacher's gifts - easy, good-natured humor and an ability to illustrate highly complex propositions with analogies plucked from daily life." The New York Times..
User reviews
LibraryThing member fpagan
(2002 edition). I think this short book might be the one that Hawking complained about as being published without his permission, cashing in on the success of _The Universe in a Nutshell_. It's a series of general-public-oriented lectures, predating the 1998 discovery of accelerating expansion.
LibraryThing member ashishg
In Stephen Hawking style, books becomes incomprehensible to reasonable mind somewhere midway. It's collection of lectures dealing with origin of universe, time and black holes but he is not lucid to non-scientific mind.
LibraryThing member BrendanCarroll
Scary, but fascinating science about the cosmos and many things beyond my comprehension.
LibraryThing member beccabgood1
Okay, I'm willing to concede that this may be a great book. And I'm sure it's much easier to read than professional writing about space science, the origins of the universe, etc. However, I still found it tough going. It inspired lots of abstract questions and pondering, but now, a few years later,
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I don't remember any of it. If I can ever make myself re-read it, maybe I'll revise my opinion, but for now it's only a tentative thumbs-up for those who already have a background in this subject matter. Show Less
LibraryThing member maheswaranm
Enjoyed the book.
First half was very enjoyable. Like another reviewer said felt as if Stephen Hawking was holding your hand and taking you through this universe explaining things.
Suddenly picked up speed and complexity. Had to re-read a lot to fully grasp things. Must be because I have been bad
This book came to me at a weird time. I recently chanced upon a video "Why is it dark at night?"
I am still finding it hard to cope with the different facts that science gave me
1. Most of the stars we see are already 'dead'
2. The "darkness" we see could be a time in life when there were no stars there - so no light - and so its dark.
3. But its not really dark - we just don't see the light.
#MindBlown #SpineChilling #WhyAmIUsingHashtagsInGoodreads
First half was very enjoyable. Like another reviewer said felt as if Stephen Hawking was holding your hand and taking you through this universe explaining things.
Suddenly picked up speed and complexity. Had to re-read a lot to fully grasp things. Must be because I have been bad
Show More
at physics. This book came to me at a weird time. I recently chanced upon a video "Why is it dark at night?"
I am still finding it hard to cope with the different facts that science gave me
1. Most of the stars we see are already 'dead'
2. The "darkness" we see could be a time in life when there were no stars there - so no light - and so its dark.
3. But its not really dark - we just don't see the light.
#MindBlown #SpineChilling #WhyAmIUsingHashtagsInGoodreads
Show Less
LibraryThing member jimocracy
This wasn't the book I had hoped for. It was interesting but did not explain string theory adequately. I'm not sure why the author spent so much time about black holes and so little time on Grand Unified Theory.
LibraryThing member mantvius
Too difficult for my mediocre mind...
LibraryThing member themulhern
This book is a transcription of several lectures Stephen Hawking gave sometime before 1996. He does not own the copyright to these lectures, and would prefer that people who are interested in his work instead consult the books that he has written himself.
Ironically, of the books by Hawking that
Chapter 1: Ideas about the Universe
Aristotle and the many reasons for a spherical earth, as well as an over-estimate of its circumference. The methods were good, but the instruments weren't so accurate.
Ptolemy's model requires the moon's distance from the earth to vary considerably. This contradicts observed fact, as the apparent size of the moon does not change as much as it would under these circumstances.
Copernicus's theory is introduced and ignored until Galileo and Kepler take it up. Kepler discovers that the orbits of the planets are ellipses and is dissatisfied. Galileo investigates the moons of Jupiter. Newton publishes the Principia and speculates about an infinite universe, in order to account for the fact that gravity does not draw all the stars together into a single lump.
Heinrich Olbers points out that if the universe were static, it would be bright all the time, even at night.
The Beginning of the Universe
-------------------------
In 1929 Edwin Hubble concludes that the universe is expanding and the theory of the big bang, the start of the expansion, is subsequently advanced. If there was a big bang, it is pointless to talk about the events that happened before it.
2. The Expanding Universe
In 1924 Edwin Hubble realizes that there are galaxies outside our own. Hubble works out the distance to other galaxies based on estimated luminosity and apparent brightness. A uniform red shift in the spectra of the stars is observed, indicating that the stars are all moving away from each other. Contrary to almost everybody's believe, including Einstein's, the universe is not static.
The Friedman Models
------------------
The Russian physicist, Alexander Friedmann, predicted the expanding universe based on an unconventional interpretation of general relativity.
Cosmic background microwave radiation is observed by Wilson and Penzias. The radiation is microwave radiation due to a substantial red shift.
There are 3 kinds of Friedmann models: expanding forever, reaching a steady state, and eventually contracting. This depends on velocity of expansion and total mass of the universe. In the contracting model, space-time is curved on itself. The universe is increasing by five to ten percent every five million years.If the mass of all the known stars were added up, it would be so small that the universe would certainly expand for ever. But there is a lot of confidence in the existence of dark matter, which would make the universe a lot heavier.
The Big Bang
-----------
Occurred between 10 and 20 thousand million years ago. The steady state theory was suggested by Bondi, Gold, and Hoyle at the end of WWII. Yevgeni Lifshitz and Isaac Khalatnikov suggested that the Friedmann models were so over-simplified as to be incorrect, but eventually decided they were wrong.
Penrose worked on black holes, and Hawking enlarged his work to demonstrate the certainty of the big bang.
3. Black Holes
The idea of a star so heavy that light can not escape was introduced in the late 18th century in a paper by John Michell. Laplace liked the idea too, but this was all before Einstein's work on relativity which introduced the idea of the constant speed of light and of space-time.
The life cycle of a star is well-known. Large stars have shorted lives than smaller stars because their nuclear reactions proceed more rapidly. Stars with masses above the Chandrasekhar limit eventually become black holes, otherwise they become neutron stars or white dwarfs. Robert Oppenheimer pointed out that what happens in a black hole has no effect on the world around it.
Roger Penrose's cosmic censorship hypothesis says that singularities are hidden inside black holes, and therefore can have no effect.
Black holes are more or less perfectly spherical, although, if rotating they may bulge about their middles.
Pulsars are rotating neutron stars. Quasars are quasi-stellar objections and may be whole galaxies.
The evidence for black holes is indirect but still good. It is possible to observe double stars, where one of the two stars is invisible, but the motion of the visible star indicates the presence of the twin star and also allows the mass of the star to be inferred. If the mass is big enough, then it must be a black hole, so there.
There may be some smaller black holes, formed shortly after the big bang.
Ironically, of the books by Hawking that
Show More
I've tried, this is really the most enjoyable to me. Partly this may be because the lecture format required a particular kind of conciseness that his books lack. I have been listening to the book on audio as well as reading it. The audio version is, apparently, a direct recording of his lectures, and is given by means of his speech synthesizer. This is interesting and quite intelligible, although some proper names have odd pronunciations. I completed only the first three chapters, described below.Chapter 1: Ideas about the Universe
Aristotle and the many reasons for a spherical earth, as well as an over-estimate of its circumference. The methods were good, but the instruments weren't so accurate.
Ptolemy's model requires the moon's distance from the earth to vary considerably. This contradicts observed fact, as the apparent size of the moon does not change as much as it would under these circumstances.
Copernicus's theory is introduced and ignored until Galileo and Kepler take it up. Kepler discovers that the orbits of the planets are ellipses and is dissatisfied. Galileo investigates the moons of Jupiter. Newton publishes the Principia and speculates about an infinite universe, in order to account for the fact that gravity does not draw all the stars together into a single lump.
Heinrich Olbers points out that if the universe were static, it would be bright all the time, even at night.
The Beginning of the Universe
-------------------------
In 1929 Edwin Hubble concludes that the universe is expanding and the theory of the big bang, the start of the expansion, is subsequently advanced. If there was a big bang, it is pointless to talk about the events that happened before it.
2. The Expanding Universe
In 1924 Edwin Hubble realizes that there are galaxies outside our own. Hubble works out the distance to other galaxies based on estimated luminosity and apparent brightness. A uniform red shift in the spectra of the stars is observed, indicating that the stars are all moving away from each other. Contrary to almost everybody's believe, including Einstein's, the universe is not static.
The Friedman Models
------------------
The Russian physicist, Alexander Friedmann, predicted the expanding universe based on an unconventional interpretation of general relativity.
Cosmic background microwave radiation is observed by Wilson and Penzias. The radiation is microwave radiation due to a substantial red shift.
There are 3 kinds of Friedmann models: expanding forever, reaching a steady state, and eventually contracting. This depends on velocity of expansion and total mass of the universe. In the contracting model, space-time is curved on itself. The universe is increasing by five to ten percent every five million years.If the mass of all the known stars were added up, it would be so small that the universe would certainly expand for ever. But there is a lot of confidence in the existence of dark matter, which would make the universe a lot heavier.
The Big Bang
-----------
Occurred between 10 and 20 thousand million years ago. The steady state theory was suggested by Bondi, Gold, and Hoyle at the end of WWII. Yevgeni Lifshitz and Isaac Khalatnikov suggested that the Friedmann models were so over-simplified as to be incorrect, but eventually decided they were wrong.
Penrose worked on black holes, and Hawking enlarged his work to demonstrate the certainty of the big bang.
3. Black Holes
The idea of a star so heavy that light can not escape was introduced in the late 18th century in a paper by John Michell. Laplace liked the idea too, but this was all before Einstein's work on relativity which introduced the idea of the constant speed of light and of space-time.
The life cycle of a star is well-known. Large stars have shorted lives than smaller stars because their nuclear reactions proceed more rapidly. Stars with masses above the Chandrasekhar limit eventually become black holes, otherwise they become neutron stars or white dwarfs. Robert Oppenheimer pointed out that what happens in a black hole has no effect on the world around it.
Roger Penrose's cosmic censorship hypothesis says that singularities are hidden inside black holes, and therefore can have no effect.
Black holes are more or less perfectly spherical, although, if rotating they may bulge about their middles.
Pulsars are rotating neutron stars. Quasars are quasi-stellar objections and may be whole galaxies.
The evidence for black holes is indirect but still good. It is possible to observe double stars, where one of the two stars is invisible, but the motion of the visible star indicates the presence of the twin star and also allows the mass of the star to be inferred. If the mass is big enough, then it must be a black hole, so there.
There may be some smaller black holes, formed shortly after the big bang.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ESMP
It is said this book wasn't written nor edited by Stephen Hawking. Nevertheless, I liked it. It was a nice reading.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1996
Local notes
Transcribed from Stephen Hawking's Cambridge Lectures, the book explains the state of late 20th-century physics. Explicitly shunning math, Hawking explains the fruits of 100 years of heavy thinking with metaphors. While he explores his own work (especially when speaking about black holes), he also discusses the important milestones achieved by others like Richard Feynman.