A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1989-03-01)

Great book to read especially if your into the cosmos n time space

A must have. The book was delivered on time and the purchase experience was great.

Delivered earlier than expected. Reading it slowly to make sure all info sinks in properly!

Tough read, interesting but very hard to comprehend! I know nothing about physics!

Inspiring, thank you.

ledge

The mark of a true educator, which Stephen Hawking certainly is, is that he would take time (very valuable time, in his case) away from research and contemplation of the great mysteries of the universe to write a piece that would serve to help explain to the greater number of less-scientifically-adept persons the fruits and implications of modern scientific research from the cutting edge of physics. Hawking is ranked in popular and scientific thinking on a par with Einstein, and has motor neuron disability that severely restricts his ability to move, even to type or write, so, when he takes time to write something for general consumption, it is probably going to be worthwhile. And indeed, this is.'Someone told me that each equation I included in the book would halve sales. I therefore resolved not to have any equations at all. In the end, however, I did put in one equation, Einstein's famous equation. I hope that this will not scare off half of my potential readers.'Hawking begins by exploring the large scale structure of the universe (time being part of the `fabric' of the universe, in spacetime), the connections of space and time as a relatively new concept in thinking of the universe, and the way the universe `acts' (cosmological dynamics). From there, he explores the universe at a very basic level, as elementary particles and forces of nature, introducing quarks.'There are a number of different varieties of quarks: there are thought to be at least six "flavours", which we call up, down, strange, charmed, bottom and top. Each flavour comes in three "colours", red, green and blue. ...We now know that neither the atoms nor the protons and neutrons within them are indivisible. So the question is: What are the truly elementary particles, the basic building blocks from which everything is made?'From this discussion Hawking proceeds to black holes (and the fact that they aren't so black and permanent as popular belief holds them to be), which circles back around to the origin and destiny of the universe (which relates back to the large-scale structure), which ultimately brings us to time. This is where things begin to get interesting.'When one tried to unify gravity with quantum mechanics, one had to introduce the idea of "imaginary" time. Imaginary time is indistinguishable from directions in space. If one can go north, one can turn around and head south; equally, if one can go forward in imaginary time, one ought to be able to turn around and go backward.'Hawking explains variations of the thermodynamic, psychological and cosmological laws that regulate the direction of time's arrow, which, despite the theoretical flexibility of time with regard to scientific principles, always apparently goes in one direction.Finally, Hawking explores the most current topic in theoretical physics: unification theories, which may or may not be a wild goose on the loose. Hawking also explores what such a grand unified theory (also called sometimes the `theory of everything') would mean, and what it wouldn't mean. But Hawking assures us that the quest for understanding is worthwhile even it won't be the final word on everything.

It is a pity that Hawking only used several pages to explain the mysterious quantum world. Especially, his explanation of Feynman's path integral approach was misleading. The paths in Feynman's approach are not classical continuous paths at all, as Hawking depicted in his book. They are also quantum states.However, Hawking's claim that each single electron must pass through two slits at the same time is right. But how does a single electron pass through two slits at the same time? It is well known that Hawking preferred many worlds theory, but he didn't refer to it in the book. In fact, it seems evident that the single electron can only pass through the two slits at the same time in a discontinuous way. Therefore, its motion must be not continuous but discontinuous. Such discontinuous motion is imaginable and comprehensible. It has actually been lucidly expounded in a recent book Quantum Motion - Unveiling the Mysterious Quantum World. A more popular introduction can be found at my name.Once we realize that motion is discontinuous and random in reality, we may finally understand the mysterious quantum world, where an electron can pass through two slits at the same time.