Average customer rating:
- Ancient and Obsolete
- Unique,Idiosyncratic Approach
- A great book by a great physicist
- Superlative
- Old book that is hostile to the spirt of G.R.
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Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity
Steven Weinberg
Manufacturer: Wiley
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ASIN: 0471925675 |
Customer Reviews:
Ancient and Obsolete.......2007-04-23
The beauty of general relativity (GR) lies in the connection it provides between geometry and physics. Weinberg's algebraic approach completely obscures this connection. Instead Weinberg teaches how to crank through complex calculations without any insight or geometric intuition. It is a fairly good book when compared to Misner-Thorne-Wheeler (another ancient text). However, by modern standards, Weinberg's book leaves much to be desired. Having been published in 1972, the book lacks modern examples in cosmology and quantum gravity. It also lacks a proper introduction to differential geometry and makes no mention of topology or other mathematical ideas prevalent in current GR research. In the 35 years since its publication, it has been surpassed by many much better books. For an excellent introduction to GR, read Carroll's book. For a more rigorous study of GR read Wald's book. For an easy introduction to GR, read Schutz's book.
Unique,Idiosyncratic Approach.......2006-09-15
Flashback to 1979.I Purchased Weinberg's Gravitation book and
Misner,Thorne, Wheeler's Gravitation book, simultaneously. Back then it took four weeks to get hold of a book by mail. The waiting made it all the more special when the books finally arrived. I still have those same two worn copies. Still re-read each. Sure, they are different viewpoints of General Relativity.
But, how greatly they both enrich the world. Together, those two
books started a pedagogic revolution. Weinberg has no
equal,cherish this book. Cherish MTW, also.
A great book by a great physicist.......2006-04-09
This is the best book written on general relativity, and I have read or at least looked at nearly every one of them. It is better than Wald's book because Steven Weinberg is a better physicist than Robert Wald. The only people who will not be pleased with it are those mathematicians who are looking to physics for elegant mathematics and not for physical insight.
A virtue of this book is that so far as I can see Weinberg has thought through general relativity for himself, and he has worked through all of the derivations himself - certainly the ones that I have checked - rather than quoting others.
This is not always the case for books in physics. Weinberg is careful, and I have yet to find an error in the book.
Superlative.......2004-12-14
Weinberg's writing is fantastic--direct, precise, and inspiring. His minimalist yet comprehensive approach, basing GR on nothing but the absolute necessities is beautiful. Virtually every word in the book is necessary and sufficient.
For GR, Weinberg's book is first among equals. Other reviews have critiqued his mathematics as old (Einstein's methods)--so what? It's easier and centerpieces the physics. Weinberg does well at making the complex as simple as can be reasonably made, a mark of a great expositor.
Old book that is hostile to the spirt of G.R........2004-12-08
There was a time when this book was probably very authoritative and useful (though I can't see myself preferring it over Hawking and Ellis, even then). Put it out of your mind: that time is gone. There are a slew of much better, much more modern books out there. Furthermore, this book is written from a perspective that attempts to filter a huge chunk of the geometry out of G.R., sullying a lot of the beauty of Einstein's central idea. If you are interested in cosmology, you can do a lot better looking at Hawking and Ellis, or one of the more recent books that will, due to their newness, emphasize the numerous advances in cosmology since the 70s. If you are interested in Relativity, PLEASE look at Schutze (beginner) or at Wald (graduate). Don't waste time and energy on this book.
That being said, there are some interesting advanced topics here, and a few things that I haven't seen elsewhere. This can be a useful reference for a researching relativist.
Book Description
This book describes how understanding the structure of reality leads to the Theory of Everything Equation. The equation unifies the forces of nature and enables the merging of relativity with quantum theory. The book explains the big bang theory and everything else.
Customer Reviews:
The Real Deal.......2006-09-25
Although Mr. Wheatley is a little verbose in sections, his documentation of Zen Buddhistic Principles found throughout the disciplines of Mathematics, Physics, Theology, etc. forms a nice reference guide for anyone tuned into that wavelength. In particular, his explanation of how Godel's Theorem and Cantor's "Confusion" shed great light on the difference between GOD's Logic and Man's Logic should be a revelation to any undergraduate level math students who encounter these ideas for the first time. Curiously, Mr. Wheatley makes many misstatements about both Zen Buddhism Principles and the Bible, however. For example, by accepting the false biblical teaching of Original Sin, he misses the point that eating the proverbial apple gave Adam and Eve the ability to make Moral Discernments in fulfillment of GOD'S PERFECT PLAN. As proof, read Genesis 1 which states that Man and Woman were made in GOD's Image. Genesis 4 shows that Adam and Eve weren't the first humans on Earth at all, there were plenty of others by then. The allegorical meaning of the story of Eden, then, isn't that Adam and Eve were the first humans on Earth, but they were the first humans with the ability to make Moral Discernments (in GOD's Image). In fact, Moral Discernment is God's Unique Gift to Man, which is the basis of consciousness, not some Math Formula. But because the wages of the resulting, unavoidable sin are Death, many people foolishly try to return to Eden by: (1) living a sinless Life (2) by removing choice altogether by passing and enforcing strict Laws (3) by attempting to do away with Moral Discernment and the resulting consequences for our actions altogether by trying to remove Shame from Shameful actions. GOD is not some ethereal Man-In-Space, but is simply the Totality of all Real Things, The Set of All Real Sets. GOD's Love manifests itself from the amazing sub-atomic relationships that underly this magic Life all the way to the grandest of Macroscopic Scales, the Interconnected Totality itself. The Zen Buddhism connection can be found by simply superimposing the 0 symbol and the symbol for infinity (8 on its side) in Mr. Wheatley's supposedly "new" formulation that 1 = 0 x infinity. Superimposing them gives you the yin-yang symbol. A potential disadvantage of artificially separating the infinity from the zero, however, is that Mr. Wheatley is able to equate the entire expression to be equal to 1. This potentially might obscure the fact that the deepest meaning of the yin-yang symbol is that it is both 2 and 1 AT THE SAME TIME. His overall equation does preserve that important meaning by utilizing a single element on one side of the equation and two elements on the other side of his final TOE equation. This may be hard to see for some at first, however, which could potentially obscure the richest meaning of this beautiful symbol/equation. A much more GODLY TOE, in my opinion, comes from Euler, who discovered that e ^ (i * pi) - 1 = 0. When someone can explain that relationship, then they can say they know GOD.
A life changing experience??.......2005-06-13
This book is an easy read and does succeed in being somewhat thought-provoking. However, I am a little surprised at the awesome, "life changing" experience it apparently was for many of the readers. Wheatley's conclusions were interesting but nothing really new. All of his material should have passed through the mind of any thinking person without the aid of this book.
The reason I gave this book three stars is because he uses unneccessarily wordy ways of describing simple things. Also, the author and many other reviewers insist that Wheatley makes only one assumption. Wrong-his whole theory is one big assumption.
Overall though it was a very interesting and worthy book.
Should be Required Reading for everyone.......2004-06-26
This book will change your life. You will never think the same way you did before reading it.
I have a degree in chemistry and I think this book should be read by everyone in the sciences. Without a doubt, the best book I've ever read. Why and what are two of our best friends
A Very Important Book.......2004-01-26
I must preface my review by stating that I have never been so excited and moved by a book that I have wanted to contact the author. That is what I found myself doing upon reading this book. This book is just what its title says. The author does not "miss a beat" describing in great detail using practically every aspect of scientific knowledge from atomic structure through logic to quantum theory---we are even given a valuable explanation of Love. This text may be challenging to read for those unfamiliar with scientific terminology. And it can also be difficult for those with a science background, such as myself. However, for me it is well worth the work necessary to strive to understand the unfamiliar terminology. (I am continually learning from this book. I am presently on my third reread).
One of the author's main messages is "not" to believe anything without first verifying it with reality, as we know it. He calls it the "Personal Explanation Principle". He indicates that religions are just such belief systems that we as people "fall" victims of; because we do not verify the beliefs with the facts, as we know them, of reality. He gives a very detailed explanation of how the New Testament can be explored using his methodology.
The author methodically and meticulously walks us through his thought processes, which took 30 years to assimilate, of delineating the structure of reality and the nature of consciousness. Included in the "walk" are many of reality's phenomena made revelatory. An example of that, for me, would be the dual nature of light. It's particle/wave duality, which is explained as "functions". Also, when the author took me on the mental journey of "Setness" an exhilaration of the magnificence of life swelled up in me.
To me this is a very important book that should be read by all that are seekers of truth. It is for all those wanting to gain an understanding of the purpose for their existence, wanting to know where life is headed towards, and wanting to know who God is.
This book will enlighten and develop one's mind substantially. You will discover that this is our objective.
And yes, I contacted the author and he responded openly.
Illuminating!!!.......2002-12-30
This is a really great book. It combines philosophy and science in order to tackle a multitude of existential problems. The author's style of writing is fresh and alive, I recommend ths book to anyone interested in expanding the fronteirs of their understanding. Books I also liked are a Universe in an Nutshell by Steven Hawkings and Descent into Illusions by Paul Omeziri.
Book Description
It is a widely known but insufficiently appreciated fact that Albert Einstein and Kurt Goedel were best friends for the last decade and a half of Einstein's life. They walked home together from Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study every day; they shared ideas about physics, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of German-Austrian science in which they had grown up. What is not widely known is that in 1949 Goedel made a remarkable discovery: there exist possible worlds described by the theory of relativity in which time, as we ordinarily understand it, does not exist. He added a philosophical argument that demonstrates, by Goedel's lights, that as a consequence, time does not exist in our world either. If Goedel is right, Einstein has not just explained time; he has explained it away.
Without committing himself to Goedel's philosophical interpretation of his discovery, Einstein acknowledged that his friend had made an important contribution to the theory of relativity, a contribution that he admitted raised new and disturbing questions about what remains of time in his own theory. Physicists since Einstein have tried without success to find an error in Goedel's physics or a missing element in relativity itself that would rule out the applicability of Goedel's results. Philosophers, for the most part, have been silent.
_A World Without Time_, addressed to experts and non experts alike, brings to life the sheer intellectual drama of the companionship of Goedel and Einstein, and places their discoveries -- which can only be measured on a millennial scale -- in the context of the great and disturbing intellectual movements of the twentieth century -- in physics, mathematics, logic, philosophy, and the arts. It contains, as well, a poignant and intimate account of the friendship between these two thinkers, each put on the shelf by the scientific fashions of their day -- and ours -- and attempts to rescue from undeserved obscurity the work Goedel did, inspired by Einstein, which made clear for the first time the truly revolutionary nature of the theory of relativity, which to this day is hardly recognized.
Customer Reviews:
more about philosophy than about physics or math.......2007-02-27
A World Without Time is a book about the friendship between Einstein and Godel that occurred toward the end of their lives. The friendship was fruitful in that Godel used Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to prove the existence of what are now called Godel Universes. Godel Universes are universes where time loops back on itself so, if you go sufficiently fast, you would end up back where you started in time. This is interesting but perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book for me was it's philosophical aspect. The author mentions the Vienna Circle and some concepts of philosophy such as positivism and ontology and epistemology which I found very interesting. I found the explanations of Godel's theories hard to follow but got the basic idea. I recommend this book for it's philosophical content. If you want to learn about Godel's Incompleteness theorem I recommend reading Godel, Escher Bach, An Eternal Golden Braid.
Should we dispense with clocks ?.......2007-02-12
The title of the book suggests time does not exist. The justification is a certain solution to Einstein cosmological equation, where the universe is rotating and time travel is possible. A path could reach into the past going around the universe.It is the Godel solution.
Modern cosmology is based on the Robertson Walker metric , or model,where there is a universal time. It fits the obseved universal expansion.The universe was born in a big bang fifteen billions years ago.
Goodel gave too much importance to his solution. After all any equation can allow many mathematical solutions which bear no relation to physical reality or fact.
The book is good reading with old and rare photos.It compelled me to reread "The Godel Solution" in Adler ,Bazin and Schiffer General Relativity.
Early in the century,Kurt Godel had laid a golden egg with his incompleteness theorem, pertaining to pure mathematics, causing some stir among Hilbert and Russell.But his attempt to abolish time, much later in 1949, felt in deaf ears among physicists and cosmologists.This is not about to change any time soon.
Yourgrau does an elegant work in rescuing an old story.It takes us through Europe and the beginnings of the Princeton Advanced Study Institute.
A World Without Time.......2007-01-23
Great book about Godel & Einstein. It tells much about their human side & their friendship. Does good job explaining some of their work.
Very bad book: a waste of your money.......2007-01-17
It is a heap op philosophy, not science. No formula, math, explanation, working examples whatsoever. Just small-talk to fill up the pages. This is NOT a physics book. I was lured into buying it thinking to get a complete textbook on Gödel's explanation of time. Forget it, this book is not worth your money. Go check the internet for PDF's or webpages containing the original publications of Gödel, they are there allright.
A World Without Time.......2007-01-04
I bought this book because I loved the cover. Everyone knows Einstein but it is amazing how few know the equally revolutionary Godel and still fewer know of their freindship. This is an invaluable book for those that (somehow) don't know about Godel's work. I didn't expect much from this book because I know of Godel's revolving universe time paradox. However, I found this book to be extremely interesting. The author's minimalist definition of Godel's theorm (syntax does not equal semantics) was worth the price alone. Unfortunatley the last chapter of the book is muddled in philosophic musings, since I am a Physicist I am less appreciative of pure philosophy.
Average customer rating:
- As easy as it can be
- As the title says, a good 'First Course'
- Good Intro, but Leaves A LOT out
- Great intro text
- undergraduate book
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A First Course in General Relativity
Bernard F. Schutz
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521277035 |
Book Description
General relativity has become one of the central pillars of theoretical physics, with important applications in both astrophysics and high-energy particle physics, and no modern theoretical physicist’s education should be regarded as complete without some study of the subject. This textbook, based on the author’s own undergraduate teaching, develops general relativity and its associated mathematics from a minimum of prerequisites, leading to a physical understanding of the theory in some depth. It reinforces this understanding by making a detailed study of the theory’s most important applications - neutron stars, black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology - using the most up-to-date astronomical developments. The book is suitable for a one-year course for beginning graduate students or for undergraduates in physics who have studied special relativity, vector calculus, and electrostatics. Graduate students should be able to use the book selectively for half-year courses.
Customer Reviews:
As easy as it can be.......2007-05-22
Nice introduction to GR. Not extensive previous knowledge needed and as clear as it could be.
As the title says, a good 'First Course'.......2007-04-04
There are a lot of books on General Relativity. In approach they vary from no math, to essentially math books. This book is somewhere in the middle. It is said to be suitable for a one year course for beginning graduate students or for undergraduates in physics who have studied special relativity, vector calculus, and electrostatics.
To enable such a student to follow the math in in this book the first part of the book reviews special relativity and vector analysis. Then the book has a section on Tensor Analysis, which was newly developed in Einstein's time when it was called tensor calculus. The treatment of these mathematical concepts in this book are, in my mind, sufficient for a review for a student that had studied them before, but will require some pretty good insight for a student that had not seen them before. This background information covers about a third of the book.
Chapter 5 of the book starts out, 'Until now we have discussed only SR.' The next two thirds cover curvature, physics in a curved spacetime, the Einstein field equations, gravitational radiation (the biggest chapter in the book), and on to the rest of GR.
By the end of the book the student has indeed completed a 'first course' in GR. There is still plenty more to go for the interested student specializing in this area.
Good Intro, but Leaves A LOT out.......2007-02-19
As background, I am a senior undergrad doing a thesis on black hole perturbations (following Chandrasekhar). This was the first book I got on GR, a little over a year ago, and I fell in love with it. It does a great job of quickly, though not completely painlessly, introducing you to GR. HOWEVER, as I now continue my ventures further, I find a lot of fundamental concepts lacking in my education. I went from this book onto parts of Wald: not a good idea IMO. I am currently paging through Lovelock and Rund and wishing the mathematical aspect had been introduced in Schutz as well as here. In the end, very nice, well explained intro to the concepts, but you NEED to either supplement with better mathematical explanation, or move quickly to higher book.
Great intro text.......2007-01-14
I started reading this book at a friend's house about 1 year ago and after graduating and starting to miss physics, I decided to pick it up and try something I didn't get in school. This book does a great job of building a fundamental understand of what is going on(and doesn't shy away from the math). The best part is the different ways it can be read. It is written to leave a lot of the deep math(actually expanding the equations and seeing the results in a more concrete manner) to the reader's discretion. As a working person, this is a huge advantage, as it means I can read ahead to curvature while spending my weekends getting familiar with tensor math.
I highly suggest this as a start for anyone that wants to get a feel for GR(not a pop culture feel, but a real understanding of the ideas and math) but doesn't always have the time to work through the math. I also have the Misner, Thorne and Wheeler book Gravitation, and while it gives a much more expansive study of GR, I don't find myself with the time required to read it.
The only drawback is I feel it doesn't give the best intuition about tensors of a higher order than a one form. But that is probably due to my own lack of intuition in that area.
For clarity, My relevant background in physics and math:
ODE, PDE, Vector Calculus, Introductory Analysis and topology, QM, EM, Mechanics, Optics, Thermodynamics. I've never studied non-euclidean space or any real study of geometry beyond the most basic of real number line topology.
undergraduate book.......2006-12-12
This book helped me survive my first course in general relativity, which I took at a time when I was not prepared to understand the textbook of the course (Wald). I have mixed feelings about the book. On the one hand, I could follow it is as an undergraduate; on the other, the level of the discussion was such that I never really felt like I "got" GR from reading it. Maybe that is the paradox of a low-level book, but for comparison I did not experience this reading, for example, griffiths and jackson. There, I felt like I grasped E&M and one level, and then learned it better at another. Perhaps general relativity doesn't work that way, or perhaps another introductory book is better. I don't really know which.
Book Description
After reviewing the basic concept of general relativity, this introduction discusses its mathematical background, including the necessary tools of tensor calculus and differential geometry. These tools are used to develop the topic of special relativity and to discuss electromagnetism in Minkowski spacetime. Gravitation as spacetime curvature is introduced and the field equations of general relativity derived. After applying the theory to a wide range of physical situations, the book concludes with a brief discussion of classical field theory and the derivation of general relativity from a variational principle.
Book Description
Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity leads to two remarkable predictions: first, that the ultimate destiny of many massive stars is to undergo gravitational collapse and to disappear from view, leaving behind a ‘black hole’ in space; and secondly, that there will exist singularities in space-time itself. These singularities are places where space-time begins or ends, and the presently known laws of physics break down. They will occur inside black holes, and in the past are what might be construed as the beginning of the universe. To show how these predictions arise, the authors discuss the General Theory of Relativity in the large. Starting with a precise formulation of the theory and an account of the necessary background of differential geometry, the significance of space-time curvature is discussed and the global properties of a number of exact solutions of Einstein’s field equations are examined. The theory of the causal structure of a general space-time is developed, and is used to study black holes and to prove a number of theorems establishing the inevitability of singualarities under certain conditions. These conditions are shown to be satisfied in the vicinity of stars of more than twice the solar mass near the endpoint of their nuclear evolution, and in a time-reversed sense for the universe as a whole. In the first case, the singularity in our past. A discussion of the Cauchy problem for General Relativity is also included in the book.
Customer Reviews:
The Large Scale structure of good science books (& spacetime.......2002-02-21
I think that this book has great depth, and is one of the best Stephen Hawking books I have read. My favourite remains 'A Brief History of Time', but still this book is extremely excellent. My compliments to the chef.
A classic in mathematical general relativity.......2002-01-18
This book is now a classic and is written by two giants in mathematics and physics. It wil be used for many years to come and is certainly one of the most widely quoted in the subject.
The authors begin the book by a discussion of the role of gravity in physics and its role as determining the causal structure of the universe. They introduce the idea of a closed trapped surface, setting the stage for the goal of the book, namely the study of the conditions under which a space-time singularity must occur. Black holes and the beginning of the universe are cited as examples of these singularities. The authors also outline briefly the content of each chapter. A neat argument is given for the significance of focal points via the use of Raychaudhari's equation.
The second chapter is an overview of the background in differential geometry needed in the rest of the book. Although complete from an axiomatic point of view, the approach is much too formal for readers who do not have a knowledge of differential geometry. Such a reader should gain the necessary background elsewhere.
General relativity as a theory of gravitation is discussed in chapter 3. Spacetime is assumed to be a connected 4-dimensional smooth manifold on which is defined a Lorentz metric. The topology is assumed to be Hausdorff. Some of the more interesting or well-written parts of this chapter include the example of a spacetime that is not inextendible, the determination of the conformal factor for the spacetime metric, and the discussion of alternative field equations.
The authors discuss the physicial significance of curvature in chapter 4, namely its effect on families of timelike and null curves. The most important part of this chapter is the discussion on certain inequalities tht the energy-momentum tensor should satisfy from a physical viewpoint. These inequalities, called the weak energy condition and the dominant energy condition, allow the authors to prove the existence of singularities in a later chapter. The reader can see clearly the role of the Jacobi equation, and its solution, the Jacobi field, in measuring the separation of nearby geodesics. The existence of conjugate points is proven, and shown to imply the existence of self-intersections in families of geodesics. As a warm-up to showing the non-existence of geodesics of maximal length, the authors employ variational calculus to study how to vary non-spacelike curves connecting points in convex normal neighborhoods in spacetime, and between points and hypersurfaces. In particular, it is shown that a timelike geodesic curve from a hypersurface to a point is maximal iff there is no conjugate point to the hypersurface along the curve. In addition, the authors prove that two points joined by a non-spacelike curve which is not a null geodesic can be joined by a timelike curve.
The authors consider the exact solutions of the Einstein field equations in chapter 5. Most of the "usual" spacetimes are considered, including Minkowski, De Sitter, Anti-de-Sitter, Robertson-Walker, Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom, Kerr, Taub-Nut, and Godel. The emphasis in on the global properties of the spacetimes and the existence of singularities in them. The famous Penrose diagrams are used to "compactify" spacetimes in order to study their behavior at infinity and their conformal properties. The authors first introduce the concept of a future (past) Cauchy development here, so important in later developments in the book. The reader can see the tools developed in chapter 4 in play here; for example, the existence of a singularity in a spatially homogeneous cosmology is shown to follow directly from the Raychaudhuri equation. The existence of the singularity is proved to be independent of any acceleration or rotation of matter in such cosmologies.
In chapter 5, the authors consider the causal structure of spacetime, namely the study of its conformal geometry. The consideration of the set of all metrics conformal to the physical metric allows one to discuss "geodesic completeness" of spacetime, this concept forming the basis of a later definition of a singularity in spacetime. The more interesting topics discussed in this chapter include the causality conditions (there are no closed non-spacelike curves), and the Alexandrov topology and its connection with the strong causality condition (every neighborhood of a point contains a neighborhood of the point no non-separable curve of which intersects it more than once). When strong causality does hold, the Alexandrov topology is equivalent to the usual manifold topology, and thus the topology of spacetime can be determined by the observation of causal relationships. The discussion on the role of global hyperbolicity in showing the existence of a maximal geodesic is also very well-written.
The next chapter is pretty much independent of the rest, and was put in no doubt for the mathematician who desires to understand the Einstein equations as a set of nonlinear second-order hyperbolic partial differential equations with initial data on a 3-dimensional manifold, the famous Cauchy problem in general relativity.
Chapter 8 is the most important in the book, for its uses the constructions of earlier chapters to define the notion of a singularity in spacetime. The authors argue that singularities are points where physical laws break down and thus to characterize them one attempts to find out whether any such points have been removed, making spacetime "incomplete" in some sense. Such a notion of incompleteness is very meaningful in topological spaces with a positive definite metric, since in that case one can define completeness in terms of the convergence of Cauchy sequences. In spacetimes with a Lorentz metric, the authors discuss the notion of geodesic completeness for null and timelike geodesics. A very detailed treatment of the now famous singularity theorems is given, these theorems involving an inequality of the Ricci tensor. The last two chapters of the book are more physical in nature wherein the singularity problem is shown to have physical relevance via the occurence of black holes at the endpoint of evolution of massive stars.
A wonderful, foundational work of mathematical physics........2000-04-26
The early seventies saw a revolution in cosmology; for the first time, modern mathematical methods were applied to the discipline, with intriguing results. This book was (along with Penrose's articles) the seminal work in global general relativity. Often overlooked is that the first half of Hawking & Ellis is devoted to traditional GR via the tensor calculus, and the q-form conception. However, trying to learn GR with this volume is not recommended (instead, cf. D'Inverno). The meat-and-potatoes of the book is the discussion of gravitational collapse, and the singularity theorems. They provide us with intuitively good reasons for believing in some very strange phenomenon. If you're interested in the frontiers of modern science, and have the appropriate mathematical background, this book cannot be recommended too highly. The little yellow book stands supreme in the hierarchy of works of modern physics.
Suitable only for mathematicians.......1999-10-21
Don't be mislead by Hawking's popular works, this is a book by a mathematician written for mathematicians. Unless you studied mathematics to at least graduate level (you need to understand vector calculus, vector spaces and tensors to get anywhere) you are unlikely to get much from this book. Even then to read it at anything other than the most superficial level is very hard work. However even at the superficial level it gives one insights into some interesting aspects of general relativity.
The best book on modern General Relativity.......1998-07-18
This book of Stephen Hawking is the more elegant one on modern General Relativity and is my favorite book. It covers in brilliant form the gravitational collapse of a star, the theory of black holes, the space-time singularities, the causal structure of space-time, and in its end the initial singularity of the universe, popularly known as the Big Bang. The book is highly mathematical, and is pressuposed that the reader have studied basic abstract algebra and point set topology. But, for the readers highly interested in these subjects(as I am), this is not a obstacle. All theoretical physicists interested in modern General Relativity should have this book, a testimony of the Genius of Stephen Hawking. Definitively, a magnific book.
Book Description
Einstein's standard and battle-tested geometric theory of gravity--spacetime tells mass how to move and mass tells spacetime how to curve--is expounded in this book by Ignazio Ciufolini and John Wheeler. They give special attention to the theory's observational checks and to two of its consequences: the predicted existence of gravitomagnetism and the origin of inertia (local inertial frames) in Einstein's general relativity: inertia here arises from mass there.
The authors explain the modern understanding of the link between gravitation and inertia in Einstein's theory, from the origin of inertia in some cosmological models of the universe, to the interpretation of the initial value formulation of Einstein's standard geometrodynamics; and from the devices and the methods used to determine the local inertial frames of reference, to the experiments used to detect and measure the "dragging of inertial frames of reference." In this book, Ciufolini and Wheeler emphasize present, past, and proposed tests of gravitational interaction, metric theories, and general relativity. They describe the numerous confirmations of the foundations of geometrodynamics and some proposed experiments, including space missions, to test some of its fundamental predictions--in particular gravitomagnetic field or "dragging of inertial frames" and gravitational waves.
Customer Reviews:
An Introduction to General Relativity?.......2004-01-22
John Archibald Wheeler does not need any introduction,neither by me, nor by anybody else:he is simply the greatest living authority on General Relativity!This book, written together with Ignazio Ciufolini,is as interesting as all his other books,and is well worth the price,despite what our friend Johngorno says!!
However,Johngorno is right in one respect:when the authors say ,in the Preface(page ix),that the "book may be used as an introduction to general relativity..." ,they are misleading the prospective reader!As a matter of fact ,if you have not had at least an introductory course in GR ,such as "A first course in General Relativity" by B.F. Schutz,don't even think about reading this book.Even the Mathematical Appendix at the end is not enough for someone not familiar with tensor calculus.The unaware reader who reaches page 21 ,for example,is hit on the head with the expression giving the Christoffel symbols as a fuction of the metric components: how is he or she supposed to guess that the comma represents a partial derivative,that sigma is a dummy index ,and therefore that there is a sum involved in this expression?He or she might turn to the mathematical index ,which will direct him or her to the Appendix,page 427,but this won't help much:the summation convention is not explained there,but at page 425,and in a very unconspicuous fashion!
So,albeit a great book on gravitation theory and experiment, this is definitely not an introduction to Einstein's theory of gravitation.It is rather aimed at the real "cognoscenti" in the field.
Having talked about the book's content,which is nothing short of outstanding,let us now turn to the form.To start with,the pictures are quite poor for a book priced at more than $90!And the paper is not that good either.
Finally,there are a few typos,which is no big deal,and some French spelling mistakes(e.g on pp.19 and 80,the proper spelling for the "fundamental memoir" by Ricci and Levi-Civita should be as follows:"Méthodes de calcul différentiel....etc".This is also excusable owing to the fact that one of the authors is American and the other Italian!And I do hope that one of them(if not both!) reads this review...
Don't Waste Your Money.......2002-04-04
I purchased my copy used (20$) and (after my initial delight at the bargain) was disappointed. I had hoped for a more technical intermediate-level expansion of Wheeler's intriguing but vague "Journey into Gravity and Spacetime." This book is instead largely a hodge-podge of specialty articles of interest only to advanced professionals in the field. Unless you have money to burn, invest it in another text, like "Gravitation," by Thorne, Wheeler, etc., which isn't great but is useful.
the book was great.......1999-05-06
This book tought me a lot about the physics of gravitation and inerti
Amazon.com
In this intellectually challenging book, Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine tackles some of the difficult questions that bedevil physicists trying to provide an explanation for the world we observe. How is it, for instance, that basic principles of quantum mechanics--which lack any differentiation between forward and backward directions in time--can explain a world with an "arrow of time" headed unambiguously forward? And how do we escape classical physics' assertion that the world is deterministic? In a sometimes mathematical and frequently mind-bending book, Prigogine explores deterministic chaos, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, and even cosmology and the origin of the universe in an attempt to reach an explanation that can reconcile physical laws with subjective reality.
Book Description
Time, the fundamental dimension of our existence, has fascinated artists, philosophers, and scientists of every culture and every century. All of us can remember a moment as a child when time became a personal reality, when we realized what a "year" was, or asked ourselves when "now" happened. Common sense says time moves forward, never backward, from cradle to grave. Nevertheless, Einstein said that time is an illusion. Nature's laws, as he and Newton defined them, describe a timeless, deterministic universe within which we can make predictions with complete certainty. In effect, these great physicists contended that time is reversible and thus meaningless.
Customer Reviews:
His most detailed updated book .......2007-08-25
by the late Nobel Laureate on the controversial issue of time's arrow. It's not clear he succeeded but his passion was never missing. He has consistently held in his books that nature is probabilistic even though his explanation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, that entropy can only hold constant or increase in an isolated system, has evolved. (For instance in acceding to Frank Tipler that gravity breaks invariance.) Much of his motivation seems to have been in sorting out why Boltzman and Gibbs failed to satisfy the science community that their statistical physics explained the 2nd law, due to reversible classical equations and Poincare recurrences. However in order to make his probabilistic argument he may have created a loophole. He points to the Langevin equation as an irreversible equation with noise (friction) and he says Poincare should have connected nonintegrability with irreversibility and most dynamics are nonintegrable. However everyone agrees some (simple) systems are reversible (pendulums etc) so how can all of nature be stochastic? Maybe because the noise terms tend to but never go to zero? However in addressing the arrow of time he suggests gravity which is ignored in thermodynamics as are all interactions; but this explanation is also used by others in deterministic models. So it may never be provable who is right; but if his loophole is real I think there may be a simpler explanation.
Statistical entropy in all of it's variations is an excellent inference tool but it is about an observer's measurements and not underlying properties of the system being measured (frequentist approaches come close but usually have to extrapolate). In this case Poincare recurrence maybe non-physical, a mere statistical fluctuation with no actuality. (Prigogine says it is false because he introduces new microscopic dynamics, I'm just saying it may not arise in reality but only through statistical assumptions which depend on observer uncertainty.) I agree with the explanation at the website secondlaw.com that the thermodynamic explanation of entropy is fundamental as it is a measure of energy diffusion, and not randomness or uncertainty as the tool of statistical entropy would imply. In this way the 2 approaches are not contradictory; the statistical is merely a measurement tool for observers while the thermodynamic is real dynamics requiring no observers (ice melts, water crystalizes etc long before man was around). The current argument in wikipedia that statistical entropy is considered more fundamental because the others can be derived from it is silly; there are many types of subjective entropy measures, the basic frequentist vs Bayesian approaches, there is volume entropy such as for measuring expanding gases, configurational entropy such as for crystals etc; however there is only one thermodynamic entropy, Clausius's dS =
<>q/T (for reversible systems; calculations change of course with potential variables of volume, pressure and temperature). If anything this should be viewed as fundamental as it is a direct measurement of the physical movement of heat. One should not confuse information theory and measurement techniques with real underlying dynamics. When some authors say 'entropy is not a property of a system, it is a property of our description of the system' they are referring to statistical entropy measures and not real thermodynamics. As Prigogine says 'irreversability is not just in our minds', that it applies to nonintegral systems identified by Poincare but not the connection. The very same wikipedia current description, possibly by a different author, accedes the point: "The problem with linking thermodynamic entropy to information entropy is that in information entropy the entire body of thermodynamics which deals with the physical nature of entropy is missing...information entropy gives only part of the description of thermodynamic entropy. Some, authors, like Tom Schneider, argue for dropping the word entropy for the H function of information theory and using Shannon's other term 'uncertianty' instead."
If Boltzman had accepted that his equation was not fundamental but an inference tool then most of the debates would likely not have arisen, including Prigogine's criticism of an excellent tool that did not deserve to be criticized on that basis. However what he has done is to show mathematically how irreversibility can apply at the microscopic level for nonintegral systems (in agreement with macroscopics) due to non-local persistent interactions but has to be measured statistically at the level of ensembles and not individual trajectories. This is quite a feat even if controversial. Nevertheless the standard entropy calculations apply for equilibrium systems and the arrow of time is still mysterious though possibly linked to gravity as he says. It would have been nice to see some discussion of entropy of non-equilibrium systems for which there is no universal agreement. For instance it is said that 'the rate of change of entropy with time for a nonequilibrium stochastic process is always positive.' [B.C. Bag; the following references are also available on the net with a simple author search.] This might suggest he already solved the problem and gravity is not required? But-
R. Metzler et. al. say 'Prigogine introduced novel microscopic laws which are irreversible with time. One reason for this ongoing discussion is the absence of rigorous mathematical proofs of irreversible properties in the thermodynamic limit...ensemble averages do not give a basic explanation of irreversible properties, since they contain an average over infinitely many trajectories. Ergodic theory does not help either, since it needs time averages over infinitely many trajectories...In this model we introduce a model with deterministic time reversible dynamics which can be analysed in detail...The Poincare return time is known exactly...' However this takes us back to the usual complaints about statistical fluctuations. [Is there a real arrow of time if everything is eventually reversible?]
Castagnino and Lombardi have developed an interesting approach to the question of the arrow of time. [Clearly Prigogine failed by his own admission and his gravity conjecture!] 'In fact time reversal invariant equations can have irreversible solutions. [e.g. the pendulum is time-reversal invariant...however the trajectories...are irreversible...]...The traditional local approach owes its origin to the attempts to reduce thermodynamics to statistical mechanics...[however] only by means of global considerations can all decaying processes be coordinated. This means that the global arrow of time plays the role of the background scenario where we can meaningfully speak of the temporal direction of irreversible processes, and this scenario cannot be built up by means of local theories that only describe phenomena confined in small regions of spacetime...the geometrical approach to the problem of the arrow of time has conceptual priority over the entropic approach, since the geometrical properties of the universe are more basic than its thermodynamic properties.'
Obviously the debate continues. While Prigogine may not have solved the arrow of time, his work on correlations is important as these are assumed away in classical physics but they are critical to life!
OK writing, great science.......2005-03-12
Reading this "popular science" book, written by one of the greatest contemporary chemical physicists, was both difficult and satisfying. To avoid a fit of sycophancy, let's just say that I wish I had it when taking my postgrad Statistical Mechanics class. The only negative thing I can cay about this book is that the discussion is somewhat eclectic; it often oscillates between almost trivial philosophy and very high-level, cutting-edge science. It is not clear what the reader is expected to know before starting on this book. That said, if you can work your way through it, you will likely come out with a new understanding of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and the physics of complex systems.
New physics for 21st century.......2003-08-13
I did buy this book some time ago and then I was fascinated. I studied the basis of his theory, but unfortunately, Prigogine passed away recently, before I can discuss with he some topics in more detail.
The greater part of the book is written in a natural style, but some sections are highly mathematical even for the majority of scientists! This mathematical presentation has a curious explaining. There are several version of Prigogine's theory, but the first versions had been "abandoned", and then Prigogine details the new approach: "Star-unitary theory for LPS outside of Hilbert space".
An earlier reviewer said that the book provides a solution to three of the most important problems in science: (1) Time's arrow. (2) The measurement problem in QM. (3) The existence of freewill. Precisely, I am working in those and other questions, and I do not believe that claim was completely correct (and perhaps Prigogine believed the same, because in his last communication, said me "The questions that you ask are very difficult."). In my opinion, the novel theory is conflictive both in mathematical and physical details, but I consider that, at least, the aim of the School is correct one. Irreversibility and uncertainty are two fundamental features of our universe. I see that orthodox physics (including particle physics and the so-called String-M theory) is incorrect and/or inapplicable. I believe that, whereas other "popular" books (The Quark and The Jaguar, The Elegant Universe, etc.) should be "relics" in 21st century physics, Prigogine's book will be then a basic work.
The contributions of Prigogine's physics to the understanding in other disciplines, as chemistry, are not clear. In fact, I believe that the impact of recent Prigogine's ideas into fundamental chemistry has been "insignificant", because his revolutionaries ideas in physics are an outcome of their previous chemical investigations (Nobel Prize for Chemistry). For example, in his complex spectral theory, energy is an imaginary quantity, and this is in direct conflict with standard quantum theory postulates. However, in theoretical chemistry, one always defines a transition state by means of an imaginary frequency. As said Prigogine in a recent Solvay conference, "all of Chemistry deals with irreversible processes". I cannot say the same of physics.
The book is very good one, but I disagree in one point. When one writes a scientific paper for publication in a specialized journal (as Physical Review), one can write about everything. Referees and other scientist can either accept or reject your work in scientific grounds. When one writes a popular book for non-expertises, one must be the most "neutral" possible. If this is not possible, one must to "alert" to the reader. This book is not neutral and, in some restricted sense, shows several theories and ideas as been of broad acceptance or current use in science. Of course, this overemphasizes the scientific status of the so-called Brussels School and minimizes the importance of other interesting points of view. In my opinion, this is not a correct attitude. For example, the "diagrammatic" method developed by Brussels School in the 60's (and illustrated in the book) is broadly not used by scientific community. See, for example, "Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics" by Robert Zwanzig for a view in more standard formalisms. In addition, I also must say that some previous Prigogine's ideas in dissipative structures, kinetic potentials, etc. are not standard, and other, as the "universal" criterion of evolution (following production of entropy), was experimentally shown to be false. Of course, other contributions of called Brussels School are simply impressive, for example the extension of scattering theory of particle physics to more general situations of chemical kinetics. Effectively, you have read fine, orthodox S-matrix of "fundamental" physics can be derived as an idealized asymptotic version valid for typical accelerator experiments! I am sorry, but I must said that Chemistry is not applied QED.
Conclusion: The book describes an excellent philosophical view in a "new" physics, and for this reason it may be a central piece on your collection. Nevertheless, I consider that the scientific way proposed is a little conflictive and some mathematics may be modified!
All of this has been said before.......2002-11-01
If you want a simple, elegant, responsible, well-informed book on the origin of the macroscopic arrow of time and on how time-revesibility at the microscopic level resolves many of the quantum paradoxes, read Physics Prof. Victor Stenger's "Timeless Reality". You will get much more out of it.
Tightening the Science Net Meshes. But Still Missing Much!.......2002-03-05
In a world gone crazy with Bohr's "observer-driven collapse of the wave function", Everett's surreal "many-worlds theory", and Einstein's discomforting "reversibility of time-flow direction", Prigogine stands as possibly the sole (or last?) defender of commonsensical notions of time in physics (which equals to say, of sanity!). He is the Champion of Time, bow, arrow, and all! His weapon: a "bow" of decades of successes (including a Noble Prize) in nonequilibrium thermodynamics. His ammunition, a quite peculiar arrow: the arrow of time. But just as happens with many literary characters, not only his virtue but also his vice may spring out of the very same source; in his case, his "sane" notions about Nature...
This book will very likely prove readable by most general readers, like myself, provided the technical parts are carefully skipped, and the central ideas are correctly spotted. It truly presents essential insights to issues like: the emergence of complexity; self-organization; the nature of matter; determinism vs probability; and the validity of time symmetry in both quantum mechanics and classical mechanics equations. As to issues like the actual existance of a flow and arrow (direction) of time (which, by the way, is the very subject of the book) and the existence of free will, the book may be too far from conclusive...
It seemed to me (only top experts could really tell for sure) that Prigogine showed compelling evidence supporting the idea that, contrary to the prevailing notions in the field of physics, there is time asymmetry both in quantum mechanics and in classical mechanics. And also, that reality at both these levels is not deterministic, but truly probabilistic. He further showed that determinism should be replaced by a probabilistic account of events both in situations where we have finite knowledge about the initial conditions and in situations where we have infinite knowledge (we are done with Laplace's Demon at last!). This alone is already a breakthrough, even though probably not news to well-informed members of the physical sciences community.
I found Prigogine a little bit contradictory (it might be that Nature itself is contradictory in this regard) when talking about determinism/time-reversibility. Sometimes, I got the impression that it only exists in idealized (non-real) situations, and sometimes I understood it as if it does exist in certain specific (real) situations.
I also found his rejection of Gödel's time-reversible interpretation of Einstein's equations far too emotional, instead of being based on experimental-mathematical grounds. As far as I know, this viewpoint, too, has experienced considerable growth over the last 10 years or so (the studies about CTC - closed timelike curves), and it seems to be a quite respectable field of inquiry. Time-flow reversibility does not seem less crazy to me than the fact that we have to use imaginary numbers (that is, numbers that do not exist at all!) in theories that deal with some very basic properties and behaviors of matter, like quantum mechanics and chaos.
Even though physicists usually equal time symmetry (in physical equations) to time-flow reversibility, and asymmetry to irreversibility, I don't see why this has to be so. Nor does this book clarifies this issue any further to the layman (it is interesting to point out in this regard that even the probabilistic collapse of the wave function is considered by the prevailing views of physicists to be symmetrical/reversible, according to Penrose in The Empreror's New Mind). Our suspicions and complaints about the mysterious nature of time are very much justified: space gives us 3 dimensions, bidirectional and with no compulsory flow. Time, on the other hand, gives us just 1 dimension, unidirectional and with compulsory flow. At best, we can slow it down, by traveling close to the speed of light (quite comforting, isn't it?).Time alone is responsible for most of our losses in life (unless you get exiled or something...). I think that, interpreting "time symmetry" as "time reversibility", scientists have actually tried to solve the unsolvable.
In our quest to understand the Universe, we often find three kinds of questions: first, those that can be proved or disproved, like the old statements "The Sun revolves around the Earth" (disproved), and "The Moon revolves around the Earth" (proved). Second, questions that can be proved, but not disproved, like the existance of God or of life after death. Third, questions that cannot be either proved or disproved, like the existance of consciousness in other human beings than ourselves (or in dogs) and (to me) the actual existance of time flow.
Prigogine says that in this book he tried to follow (or discover?) a "narrow path" between utter determinism and total randomicity, probably hoping to find room for free will in between. Although I think he did a brilliant work, I feel that he got stuck in this Narrow Path. His work refutes determinism, but instead of presenting phenomena or advancing mechanisms to support free will, it only casts us into the depths of utter chance. In spite of that, when talking about self-organization in dissipative structures, Prigogine passes on the idea of "choice", even saying (more than once) that "matter begins to see" and that "the system chooses". This might ascribe to nature at its most basic structure the properties of "life" and maybe even of "consciousness", which might mean that we are at the verge of a revigorated return to the ancient ideas of hilozoism and panpsychism. Furthermore, this blurs the limits between emergence and reductionism, for it is very difficult to take a sound reductionist stand (or emergencionist stand) if we don't know what to expect of the world around us (we can't tell if something is emerging or just "arising").
Prigogine's appeal for sanity is both his virtue and his weakness, in a Universe that pays little heed to human's logic and causality. A Universe in which, regardless of being dictated by an authoritarian God or determined by blind and cold laws of nature, the only theory that may account for all that there is is the familiar and provincial B.I.S.O. theory. Namely: Because I Say So!
Average customer rating:
- Very well written
- Relativity in the style of Feynman's Lectures
- subtle approach to SR and GR
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Essential Relativity: Special, General, and Cosmological (Theoretical and Mathematical Physics)
W. Rindler
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The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
ASIN: 354007970X |
Customer Reviews:
Very well written.......2002-02-16
As a modern textbook in the theory of relativity, this book is rare, in that its goal is to give the reader a conceptual introduction to the theory, and not just mathematical formalism. The author also does not hesitate to include some philosophical argumentation wherever needed. It is written for the advanced undergraduate, and will prepare such a reader for more advanced reading in the subject.
The first chapter of the book is the best, for it is a comprehensive discussion of the origins of the theory of relativity as one that rejected the assertion that space and time were absolute. The author also gives an interesting historical discussion of Lorentz's ether theory, wherein Lorentz hypothesized that bodies moving through the ether undergo a contraction, and he discovered a time transformation that implied that clocks moving through the ether run slow. As the author points out, Lorentz thought such considerations were purely mathematical, and not important physically. In addition, in the section on Mach's principle, the author discusses briefly the work of Dennis Sciama who showed that the 1872 gravitational theory of F. Tisserand included Mach's principle. I was not aware of this work, and it motivated me to do further reading on the subject. The author also gives several examples to show that Mach's principle is not physically vacuous, but has observational consequences.
Chapter two overviews the kinematic consequences of the special theory of relativity. The most interesting part of this discussion was the section on the formulation of special relativity without assuming the invariance of the speed of light. The author shows that the principle of relativity implies that either all inertial frames are related by Galilean transformations, or all are related by Lorentz transformations with the same (postive) velocity (squared).
A discussion of optical effects follows in chapter 3. One unexpected and interesting result in this chapter is that a moving sphere has a circular outline to all observers because of length contraction.
Some of the mathematical formalism needed in special relativity is overviewed in chapter four. The class of four-vectors and four-tensors is defined, and the light cone geometry discussed in detail.
The relativistic mechanics of point particles is covered in chapter five. Such a theory is cast in the language of four-vectors, and the author explains nicely the mass-energy equivalence, analyzes scattering from a relativistic standpoint in the center of momentum frame, and shows how Newtonian mechanics is altered in the relativistic realm. He also spends a little time on relativistic continuum mechanics, via the energy tensor of the simplest continua: dust.
The connection between relativity and electrodynamics is outlined in chapter six. The material is standard and found in most books on relativity.
The author begins the study of general relativity in chapter seven with some elementary considerations of the differential geometry of curved surfaces and also Riemannian spaces. The author endeavors, rightfully, to explain the mathematics in a way that is intuitive as possible, rather than hitting the reader with highly abstract formalism.
He then presents the mathematica foundations of general relativity in chapter eight. After a brief review of tensor calculus, the author considers the gravitational field equations in a vacuum, emphasizing their nonlinearity. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the famous Schwarzschild solution. In addition, he considers a particular exact solution of the Einstein field equations in a vacuum, namely a plane-fronted gravitational wave. Although not physical, this solution illustrates some important properties of general gravitational radiation.
The author ends the book with a fairly detailed overview of cosmology. The difficulties in the pre-relativistic cosmology are discussed, one of the more interesting being the consideration of the Newtonian gravitational field inside a cavity resulting from the removal of a finite sphere from a static universe. Recognizing that Poisson's equation does not have a constant solution led to the alteration of the Newtonian potential and thus a modification of the Poisson equation. As the author observes, this move to get a static Newtonian universe is formally the same as what Einstein did via the introduction of the cosmological constant in his field equations (also to get a static universe). The author also considers the Robertson-Walker, Milne, and Friedman universe, and compares these to what is known observationally.
Relativity in the style of Feynman's Lectures.......1998-07-19
This is a wonderful book, very amusing and thought provoking. Without trying to be comprehensive, it sheds much light on the basics of the theory, as well as of the mathematics. His discussion of Mach's principle is brilliant, and ends with a proposal of an experiment to test it with satellites! Very good at computations too, boasting tables for computing the curvature tensor from the metric tensor which are very useful.
subtle approach to SR and GR.......1997-07-15
Although not the most comprehesive text on
the subject (see Thorne's tome, Gravitation),
Essential Relativity is perhaps the most
fulfilling book from which to learn both special and general relativity on a graduate school level.
Flipping through the pages, one cannot help
but notice that it often reads like a novel.
For the student or the adventurous, a wide
variety of problems are found in an appendix.
The author's background in differential geometry
is very evident in his excellent explanations
of difficult concepts.
Amazon.com
A baffling array of science books claim to reveal how the mysteries of the universe have been discovered, but Simon Singh's Big Bang actually delivers on that promise. General readers will find it to be among the very best books dealing with cosmology, because Singh follows the same plan he used in his brilliant Code Book: he puts people--not equations--first in the story. By linking the progression of the Big Bang theory with the scientists who built it up bit by bit, Singh also uncovers an important truth about how such ideas grow.
Death is an essential element in the progress of science, since it takes care of conservative scientists of a previous generation reluctant to let go of an old, fallacious theory and embrace a new and accurate one.
As harsh as this statement seems, even Einstein defended an outmoded idea about the universe when an unknown interloper published equations challenging the great man. Einstein didn't have to die for cosmology to move forward (he reluctantly apologized for being wrong), but stories like this one show how difficult it can sometimes be for new theories to take root. Fred Hoyle, who coined the term "big bang" as a way to ridicule the idea of a universe expanding from some tiny origin point, strongly believed that the cosmos was in a steady state. But Singh shows how Hoyle's research, meant to prove the contrary, added evidence to the expansion model. Big Bang is also a history of astronomical observation, describing the development of new telescopes that were crucial to the development of cosmology. Handwritten summary notes at the end of each long chapter add a charming, classroom feel to this revealing and very readable book. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
A half century ago, a shocking Washington Post headline claimed that the world began in five cataclysmic minutes rather than having existed for all time; a skeptical scientist dubbed the maverick theory the Big Bang. In this amazingly comprehensible history of the universe,
Simon Singh decodes the mystery behind the Big Bang theory, lading us through the development of one of the most extraordinary, important, and awe-inspiring theories in science.
Customer Reviews:
Phenomenally Interesting, Engaging, Stimulating and, Readable.......2007-10-01
For this reader with a lot formal education, but very little of it in the physical sciences, Simon Singh's `Big Bang' was phenomenally interesting, engaging, intellectually stimulating, readable, and educational. Others with more background in cosmology may find it too basic. Singh takes the reader through the history of cosmology as he builds toward an explanation of the Big Bang theory. The opening chapter explains the ancient's earth-centered (and common sensical) view of the universe and its downfall at the hands of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler and Galileo. Later chapters follow the disproof of ether, Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, and the `great debate' between the supporters of a static universe and Lemaitre and others who supported the idea of an expanding (Big Bang) universe.
A large portion of the book follows the scientific efforts to gather evidence to support one view or the other. The renowned Edwin Hubble and the less so Henrietta Leavitt played key roles in finally providing enough evidence supporting the Big Bang theory to at least make it a credible argument. The remainder of the book follows the debate between the solid state theorists led by Fred Hoyle and the Big Bang backers led first by Gamow and Alpher, but later by others who resolved some of the nagging doubts about the theory, for example, the crucial 1992 proof of tiny variations in cosmic microwave background radiation.
Each chapter (at least in the P.S. version) has handy summary notes. Singh provides a useful glossary as well as recommended further readings for each chapter.
I generally read 50-75 books a year and rate The Big Bang as one of my top five books of the year. Five measly stars don't do it justice. I will resist the temptation to rate as a supernova, but this book greatly enhanced my understanding of the world around us and was a joy to read.
Absolutely the highest recommendation.
Big Bang! Good Book!.......2007-09-28
While I am fascinated by the process of science and how science arrives at theories based on observation, I am also leery about reading books written by scientists. Their knowledge of the area is usually so great that they are unable to reduce the complexity of the subject to that suitable for mere mortals. But Simon Singh with a PhD in particle physics is not one of them. I noted that he had been a producer for the BBC so I felt that there was a chance that he could tell an understandable story. And I was right. This was one of the best science non-fiction books I've read in a long time. Singh walks us through the chronology of the development of the theory, starting with the earliest physicist/astronomers. He gives examples of objections to the Big Bang theory and then shows how the data supports the theory. One of the objections to the theory was that if the theory were true, then there should be background microwave radiation. And he proceeds to tell the story of how this radiation was finally found. Singh also discusses some of the personalities involved in the development from or fight against the theory. All-in-all this was a very worthwhile read, far superior in interest and anecdotes than books like The Elegant Universe or the Physics of the Buffyverse.
Reasonably good cosmology.......2007-08-07
Not much here I haven't seen before, but nicely put together. Certainly a good introduction to the subject, written at a reasonably adult level and very understandable.
The history of Big Bang theory explained.......2007-08-05
Simon Singh is one of my favourite authors when it comes to popular science. I've enjoyed his books a lot, his style is both entertaining and educational at the same time. Big Bang is no different. By focusing his story on the colourful characters instead of equations, Singh makes the book easy to approach.
There's one thing to notice: the book is less about the Big Bang itself and more about the theory of Big Bang. Singh starts from the ancient Greek, describing how the whole concept of science was born and developed. Much of the book is devoted to the argument between Big Bang and steady-state universe theories. After reading this book, the reader will be familiar with the scientific process and the evolution of scientific paradigms.
Another success for Singh, and I'm definitely looking forward to whatever he's doing next. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)
An extremely enjoyable read.......2007-07-21
"Big Bang" is a very informative book which not only elucidates the history of the Big Bang theory, but begins by documenting the history of cosmology in general from many different civilizations, from Pythagoras to Hubble.
Every aspect of the Big Bang theory is discussed from redshift to elemental synthesis, and it is all explained is simple English (well as simple as nuclear physics can get anyway!). The history of modern cosmology is also well documented, discussing Hubble, Hoyle and Lemaitre, to mention just a few. An immense amount of research has been done by Singh for this book, and for this reason I regard it as a vital source for anyone who has a love for science and/or the history of science and cosmology.
An extremely enjoyable read! Highly recommended!
Books:
- Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity
- High Energy Astrophysics
- History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
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