doc Ó A Brief History of Time From the Big Bang to Black Holes ✓ Stephen Hawking
In the ten years since History of MOBI #9734 its publication in Stephen Hawking's classic work has become a landmark volume in scientific writing with than nine million copies in forty languages sold worldwide That edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe But the intervening years have seen extraordinary adva It is not clear to me who is in the target audience for this book At times it tries to explain basic concepts of modern physics in simple language and at other times it assumes a familiarity with the same subject For the first time I think I understand why absolute time is not consistent with relativity theory or that space time curvature supplants the notion of gravity and for that I thank the author There are a few other things I believe I have a glimpse of having finally slogged through the bookOn the other hand there are many places where he writes as if it were clear what he is talking about even though it would reuire a good deal of background knowledge To give but one example he starts talking about summing up over possible world histories I cannot locate the uotation without explaining what that would mean Trained in statistics I have some idea that he is talking about mathematical expectation in the context of uantum mechanics but I don't know how another reader might make any sense of it and I certainly don't have than a vague notion There are irritating writing practices that could have used some editing eg the use of the naked pronominal adjective this when in the middle of a dense explanation of an abstruse concepteg This had serious implications for the ultimate fate of massive stars My biggest complaints however are about his philosophical opinions Obviously he is entitled to think as he wishes about the ultimate uestions but his assertion that his hypothesis of a finite world without beginning or end would leave no place for God seems beside the point The classic divide has not changed some folks look around and say stuff just is and other folks say there's a power behind the stuff that has at least as much going for it as we do That argument hasn't changed with his theories At one point in the book he claims that the late John Paul II told gathered scientists that they mustn't inuire into the Big Bang because that was God's territory I would wager with anyone reading this comment that such an assertion is just plain false JPII was a flawed mortal to be sure but he was no dope; it certainly sounds to me like someone hearing what he thinks the pope would say And the Galileo jokes are pretty dumb does anyone think that JPII who apologized for the embarrassing Galileo fiasco would go after this guy It must be all that influence the Vatican has had in Britain over the last 400 years that has him scared Other philosophical complaints involve his use of entropy he defines it first within closed systems and then uses it to explain why the thermodynamic arrow of time and the personal arrow of time must run in the same direction leaping from a box of molecules to the entire universe his droning on about what black holes are like when he doesn't know for sure they exist his statements about random and being 95% certain a theory is true does that mean about 95 out of 100 theories like that are true His opinions may be very rich deep though provoking but how would I or most general readers know You can't really evaluate a judgment unless you know something in the field And so that is why I ultimately cannot recommend this book if you know physics inside and out you might find his opinions interesting If you don't you can only walk around parroting what he says about black holes as if you had a clue what you were talking about What we all really need is a remedial course in physics
Stephen Hawking ✓ A Brief History of Time From the Big Bang to Black Holes kindle
A Brief History of Time From the Big Bang to Black HolesAled wrinkles in the fabric of space time that he had projected Brief History of Epub #226 Eager to bring to his original text the new knowledge revealed by these observations as well as his own recent research Professor Hawking has prepared a new introduction to the book written an entirely new chapter on wormholes and time travel and updated the chapters throughout This is an absolutely magical book both objectively and for me specifically I first read it when I was about 9 or 10 and ever since I've assumed that I didn't understand a thing and read it as a childish boast Fast forward nearly twenty years degree and PhD in physics in hand and I decided to give it a proper read Much to my surprise I found that the book had permeated my brain I remembered a huge number of the explanations and the book resonated with the way I've thought about physics my entire academic career I think I took in a great deal than I first thoughtAs a primer to physics I would say modern physics but the book is a little out of date you really couldn't ask for anything better than this Especially when it comes to cosmology this is possibly the best popular physics book that I've ever read It really is a classic for a reason It's such a concise understandable introduction to the field that I'm determined to get my girlfriend a linguist with no real interest in physics to read it Not just because I think she'll understand it but because I think she will enjoy itOne peculiarity of the text is Hawking returning to the concept of God with a capital G over and over again In some ways this feels like a transitional text marking the passing of the public generation for whom the church determined the order of all things and the coming of the current secular generation Unlike other authors looking at you Dawkins Hawking always does so in a way that feels respectful while also forcefully stating his scientific case It's uite feat of writing much like the rest of the workYou really should read this it's fantastic