Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time"

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07-09-2007, 10:13 PM
Dooch

Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time"

Just finished reading this book. Great book. Hawking is one of the most brilliant men of our time. He makes this book easy to read for those of us who arent quantum mechanics experts or specialists in the theory of general relativity.

It really opens your mind up and makes you realize how small we humans are in this whole universe. The phsyics of it all is fascinating. Structures on scales so large we cant even comprehend them....and to oppose that, quantum mechanics and particles so small we can't even grasp that either...and here we are, somwhere in between at a happy medium.

The final chapter mentions string theories and a universe with ten to twenty six dimensions, most of which being so small that we don't even realize they are there....all we fathom is four dimensions, one of which is time. Also, wormholes and the possibilities (although faint) of time travel.
An interesting part of the book...when Hawking says they accelerated a particle to 99.99% the speed of light but it would not approach the speed of light. Infinite energy is required for that.

Its really amazing, it makes you wonder what the whole purpose is? Did God create this....does the universe have boundaries, did it start from a singularity a la the big bang??? Or is it infinite with no boundaries....maybe the universe just IS.
Great book, i recommend it if you already havent read it.
07-10-2007, 05:39 PM
Dooch

Uh, why was this moved and where was it moved to?
07-10-2007, 05:56 PM
MASTER PAI MEI

It was moved to the book forum
07-11-2007, 02:03 PM
Slippy The Pimp

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickyTooch

Just finished reading this book. Great book. Hawking is one of the most brilliant men of our time. He makes this book easy to read for those of us who arent quantum mechanics experts or specialists in the theory of general relativity.

It really opens your mind up and makes you realize how small we humans are in this whole universe. The phsyics of it all is fascinating. Structures on scales so large we cant even comprehend them....and to oppose that, quantum mechanics and particles so small we can't even grasp that either...and here we are, somwhere in between at a happy medium.

The final chapter mentions string theories and a universe with ten to twenty six dimensions, most of which being so small that we don't even realize they are there....all we fathom is four dimensions, one of which is time. Also, wormholes and the possibilities (although faint) of time travel.
An interesting part of the book...when Hawking says they accelerated a particle to 99.99% the speed of light but it would not approach the speed of light. Infinite energy is required for that.

Its really amazing, it makes you wonder what the whole purpose is? Did God create this....does the universe have boundaries, did it start from a singularity a la the big bang??? Or is it infinite with no boundaries....maybe the universe just IS.
Great book, i recommend it if you already havent read it.

Sounds interesting. Do you have any links to anything Hawkings wrote online. I think that's someone I can build with.
07-11-2007, 04:49 PM
Dooch

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slippy Capalini

Sounds interesting. Do you have any links to anything Hawkings wrote online. I think that's someone I can build with.

Before I bought the book, i read alot of excerpts from it online. I just googled hawking and black holes, and stuff like that. I suggest just buying the book. I got it for 18 dollars and read it in about four days. Its about 200 pages long and easy to read.
07-12-2007, 11:08 PM
rainbow

string theory is crazy, just trying to envisage it is a struggle.
07-19-2007, 08:02 PM
the silencer

i read this and was definitely feelin it, as it was really my first introduction to most of this stuff.....but at times Hawking can be waaaay to technical and make it incredible boring...

i highly recommend The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene, he explains this stuff SOOOO clearly and uses tons of examples....and he often uses characters n places from the Simpsons to make his points so its entertaining as well...

also, the Tao of Physics is on a whole completely diff level than these books.....will totally change the way u see everything..
07-21-2007, 02:26 AM
noel411

The thing that surprised me most about this book after seeing the picture of Hawking on the cover, was that it actually contained an aspect of humour, haha. Interesting book though. Pretty fucken complex stuff.