Stephen Hawking’s worldwide bestseller, A Brief History of Time, has been a landmark volume in scientific writing. Its author’s ...
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Jun 08, 2011
Brooke
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Very readable, and I was actually surprised to realize I'd learned most of this information in an astronomy class I took in college. Who knew I was this educated?
The end of the book, where Hawking discusses the theories that scientists are currently trying to prove, started getting to be a bit above my head - in my lay opinion, I think it was a combination of Hawking getting a bit more vague and having fewer concrete facts and observations to state.
The end of the book, where Hawking discusses the theories that scientists are currently trying to prove, started getting to be a bit above my head - in my lay opinion, I think it was a combination of Hawking getting a bit more vague and having fewer concrete facts and observations to state.
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Jun 08, 2011
Rusty
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To begin, I am not….scientifically inclined. But I would like to get a better grasp on some scientific principles, so I thought I would give this book a whirl. I didn’t grasp everything, by any means, but the book is very informative. I found it very interesting to learn how little/much physicists know about the universe, its properties, and the struggle to find natural governing laws that consistently prove true. I feel that I’ve learned a great deal from this book, and will probably read it
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Jun 08, 2011
Briynne
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Wow and wow. I am not by nature a science person. The largely-repressed memories I have of high school chemistry still make me feel a little ill. But this, friends, is more like reading poetry than it is like reading a textbook. I am officially in awe of Stephen Hawking - the man can actually make you feel about subatomic particles and forces of nature. It's nothing short of amazing, really. I don't pretend to understand 99% of what the book discusses beyond an extremely superficial level,
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Jun 08, 2011
Rick
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I love Physics. And I suck at understanding Physics. But I try. I can actually identify the paragraph where I get lost. I guess that, at least at this time in my life, I'm not capable of getting my head around the concept of a unified and relative space-time and all the implications it carries (such as the bending of time near large gravitational fields, differences in aging the farther one gets from the center of a large gravitational field, and that whole section about time travel). I rea
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Jun 08, 2011
Bruce
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This will be a shorter-than-usual review for me, but it doesn't seem necessary to add much more to the many excellent reviews of this book. This is the Hawking-Mlodinow easy-reader (because his best-seller A Brief History of Time was bought to make people seem better informed, but not actually really read. The challenge here was to comprehensively and cogently present complex concepts like relativity, quantum theory, string theory, etc. without using *any* numbers whatsoever (not even powers o
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Jun 08, 2011
Cait
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There's nothing like the contemplation of the universe for making one feel simultaneously awe struck and incredibly insignificant.
Kind of random, but I loved Hawking's frequent use of the exclamation mark. For example::
"However, when an antiparticle and a particle meet, they annihilate each other. So if you meet your antiself, don't shake hands - you would both vanish in a great flash of light!"
and
"The supermassive black hole has a star orbitin More...
Kind of random, but I loved Hawking's frequent use of the exclamation mark. For example::
"However, when an antiparticle and a particle meet, they annihilate each other. So if you meet your antiself, don't shake hands - you would both vanish in a great flash of light!"
and
"The supermassive black hole has a star orbitin More...
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Jun 08, 2011
Kristine
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Whoa! Readable! Surprise! Very, very readable physics!! Leonard Mlodinow and Stephen Hawking have made a more accessible version of Hawking's bestselling book A Brief History of Time-- and it's a winner that presents fascinating physics concepts in digestible sentences and paragraphs with pleasing, if somewhat superfluous, graphics. This is just what I was looking for -- I inhaled this one in rather short order, though I can't say that I am particularly coherent on explaining topics like quant
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Jun 08, 2011
Michael
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An even shorter version of a History of time... then a brief history of time and now a briefer history of time. I dont care how short he makes the next one. If it will take physics and make it digestible to the average joe then I'm all for it.
It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination.
That was somehow lost in our information generation. So like I said, i More...
It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination.
That was somehow lost in our information generation. So like I said, i More...
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Jan 08, 2012
Paul
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By Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, published in 2005.
This is an updated version of “A Brief History In Time” as you may have guessed from the title. It is a slightly toned down version meaning the formulas have been stripped out and an attempt has been made to explain things in a more concise and less technical way.
Does it work? I’m not entirely sure.
I find space and time and gravity very interesting topics and inside this book you will find discussions of the More...
This is an updated version of “A Brief History In Time” as you may have guessed from the title. It is a slightly toned down version meaning the formulas have been stripped out and an attempt has been made to explain things in a more concise and less technical way.
Does it work? I’m not entirely sure.
I find space and time and gravity very interesting topics and inside this book you will find discussions of the More...
Nov 13, 2011
Bruno
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Mais um livro lido, mas esse bem diferente dos temas antes viajados… Esse agora é uma viagem muito mais emocionante, muito mais reveladora, muito mais grandiosa e o principal, muito mais verdadeira.
Uma Nova História do Tempo, de Stephen Hawking e Leonard Mlodinow, revela as verdades científicas de nosso universo, de nossa matemática, de nossa ciência! É simplesmente fantástico ler sobre a primeira e segunda leis de Newton, sobre a teoria da Relatividade, teoria do Espaço Curvo, o Univ More...
Uma Nova História do Tempo, de Stephen Hawking e Leonard Mlodinow, revela as verdades científicas de nosso universo, de nossa matemática, de nossa ciência! É simplesmente fantástico ler sobre a primeira e segunda leis de Newton, sobre a teoria da Relatividade, teoria do Espaço Curvo, o Univ More...
Jul 15, 2011
Amr
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أكثر من رائع أن تجد كتابا يتناول الحقائق العلمية الجامدة بنظرة فلسفية تقرب إلى الذهن مفاهيم علوم الطبيعة دون الخوض في تعقيدات المعادلات و الإثباتات؛ و فوق كل ذلك فهو يتناول النظرة الكلية لتكامل العلوم معا في رؤية شاملة تربط ما بين الرياضيات و الفيزياء و الكيمياء وحتى الأحياء و الفلسفة وذلم بأسلوب سلس و روح دعابة لطيفة لا تشعر معها أنك تقرأ عصارة ما أفنى فيه عباقرة العالم الأفاذ عمرهم ليتوصوا إليه.
كتاب يجب أن يقرأ و حبذا لو كان مقررا في التعليم ما قبل الجامعي حيث يحتاجه كل واحد ليس فقط More...
كتاب يجب أن يقرأ و حبذا لو كان مقررا في التعليم ما قبل الجامعي حيث يحتاجه كل واحد ليس فقط More...
Aug 29, 2011
Thomas
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A book about the vastness of space and it's history written in a understandable for mortals style by a very successful and famous physicist (also referred to as the new Galileo and/or Newton).
I have a little trouble with concentrating and this is not really a good book to read if you have those problems too. Many times I've just dozed off while reading the technicalities mentioned in the book. To tell you the truth I was somewhere else while reading most of it. But that's not directly the b More...
I have a little trouble with concentrating and this is not really a good book to read if you have those problems too. Many times I've just dozed off while reading the technicalities mentioned in the book. To tell you the truth I was somewhere else while reading most of it. But that's not directly the b More...
Jan 31, 2012
Todd
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“Today we know that stars visible to the naked eye make up only a minute fraction of all the stars. We can see about five thousand stars, only about .0001 percent of all the stars in just our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way itself is but one of more than a hundred billion galaxies that can be seen using modern telescopes - and each galaxy contains on average some one hundred billion stars. If a star were a grain of salt, you could fit all the stars visible to the naked eye on a teasp
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Jul 04, 2011
William
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I'm kind of a TV bimbo. I'll watch any show that features the FBI and/or pop-science tidbits. The show "Numb3rs," for example, is full of anecdotes that try to describe the cosmology of the universe and a bit of its underlying mathematical language. Hawking's "Briefer History of Time" provides a scope and sequence for our current understanding of the universe, both our questions and what we think we know.
I couldn't put this book down. There was just so much to More...
I couldn't put this book down. There was just so much to More...
Dec 26, 2011
Danny
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This is my first attempt to wade through any material produced by Stephen Hawking. I am an amateur to this topic so I began reading this material with the expectation that some of this information would go over my head. I was surprised to find that he did a reasonable job in explaining the necessary knowledge and it wasn't until quantum physics was discussed that I began to have trouble. So based on the information itself and some of his nice illustrations I would give this book a very high rati
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Aug 01, 2011
Shireen
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**I'm not really sure you can have spoilers in a non-fiction book and one that was extensively discussed in the press, but if so, there is a tiny bit of a spoiler four paragraphs down and on.**
In preparation for my next-next novel, I decided to read the briefer (and, I assume, easier) of Stephen Hawking's books on time and space for the lay person. It's something I would've been loathe to do even six months ago because of the state of my reading ability. But Goodreads has done for me w More...
In preparation for my next-next novel, I decided to read the briefer (and, I assume, easier) of Stephen Hawking's books on time and space for the lay person. It's something I would've been loathe to do even six months ago because of the state of my reading ability. But Goodreads has done for me w More...
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Jun 08, 2011
Mike
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I read the previous version of this book, and this one is even better. I came away with a much better understanding of relativity, the uncertainty principle & even string theory. I would recommend this book to anybody interested in science. It is very well written.
Aug 19, 2011
Ergun
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Physics for mere mortals. "A Briefer History of Time" is a popular-science book from the English physicist Stephen Hawking and the American physicist Leonard Mlodinow. It is an update and rewrite of Hawking's 1988 "A Brief History of Time". I read the original long time ago and had great difficulty to grasp the subject despite my relatively strong background in Physics. My objective of reading the "Briefer" version was to learn where we are at in understanding our U
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Aug 23, 2011
I wanted to expand my mind a bit by delving into the physics of the universe. After reading "The Pluto Files" by Neil deGrasse Tyson I needed more. Talk about mind bending stuff. Stephen Hawking made me think about time and space warping and how we as humans are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The fact that it would take us 10,000 years to travel to our nearest star (besides the sun) is a bit much to grasp. It was great getting a refresher on basic physics and the his
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Jun 08, 2011
Papajack
rated it:
Well, still no breakthrough in the combined theories. But now Hawking says God did not make the universe, gravity did. You know the obvious question.
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Nov 08, 2011
Richard N.
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I liked it!
A very thought-provoking journey through material I have been interested in for a long time. One thing... I haven't been THAT interested in most of it. This is definitely a book you want to READ and not listen to. My ability to focus, digest, and marinate on the fast-paced, complex topics was not great in the audiobook format. Lesson learned!
A few eye-rolling parts here and there... how is "turtles all the way down" any less silly and explanation than More...
A very thought-provoking journey through material I have been interested in for a long time. One thing... I haven't been THAT interested in most of it. This is definitely a book you want to READ and not listen to. My ability to focus, digest, and marinate on the fast-paced, complex topics was not great in the audiobook format. Lesson learned!
A few eye-rolling parts here and there... how is "turtles all the way down" any less silly and explanation than More...
Aug 11, 2011
Dean
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This is a really fun read. I'm a fairly technical person, but have always struggled with the more complex theories of physics and I found this to be written at a level that I could grasp and it really improved my understanding of theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. There were several "Aha!" moments for me that were quite satisfying. For example, I finally understand why the speed of light of is a constant! I'd recommend it to anyone who's inquisitive about physics but think
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Jun 08, 2011
Jorge
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Nunca había leído nada de Hawking y Mlodinow, y me fascinó la destreza de ambos científicos para explicar conceptos tan complejos como la relatividad general y la mecánica cuántica con sencillez. El libro, un texto de divulgación científica, salta de la historia de la ciencia a la filosofía, a la astrofísica y la física teórica para pintarnos un retrato somero pero profundo acerca de lo que conocemos del universo y las leyes que lo rigen y cómo ha evolucionado el pensamiento científico para que
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Jul 15, 2011
Fahad
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من أروع الكتب التي قرأتها في علم الكون، نعم في الحقيقة جاوب هذا الكتاب عن الكثير من الأسئلة التي كانت بداخلي.
في البداية تحدث البروفسور ستيفن عن العالم كما نراه بمنظورنا وأعيننا المجردة، ثم اخذنا بجولة مفصلة عن الزمان والمكان، ليرتقي بنا بعد ذلك الى ماوراء المجرة.
ثم أخذ بعد ذلك يناقش في النظرية النسبية لانيشتاين ثم بعد ذلك في النظرية الكمية ( التي أسعى الى فهما الان ) ليبين مبدأ الارتياب والذرات مقابل قوة الطبيعة.
ثم تطرق الى موضوع الثقوب السوداء ولكن صدمت لاسلوب الطرح في هذا ا More...
في البداية تحدث البروفسور ستيفن عن العالم كما نراه بمنظورنا وأعيننا المجردة، ثم اخذنا بجولة مفصلة عن الزمان والمكان، ليرتقي بنا بعد ذلك الى ماوراء المجرة.
ثم أخذ بعد ذلك يناقش في النظرية النسبية لانيشتاين ثم بعد ذلك في النظرية الكمية ( التي أسعى الى فهما الان ) ليبين مبدأ الارتياب والذرات مقابل قوة الطبيعة.
ثم تطرق الى موضوع الثقوب السوداء ولكن صدمت لاسلوب الطرح في هذا ا More...
Jun 08, 2011
NG
rated it:
Finally!
It's a great book, really, but I've been away from science for a long time... It's been years since I read anything other than literature and history, many some philosophy, which made it a bit hard for me to get a grasp of all those informations in the book...
Nevertheless.. Hawking managed to review some of the most complicated and sophisticated theories in physics in a way to enable even someone like me to understand..
One thing I don't know if I got it right or wrong More...
It's a great book, really, but I've been away from science for a long time... It's been years since I read anything other than literature and history, many some philosophy, which made it a bit hard for me to get a grasp of all those informations in the book...
Nevertheless.. Hawking managed to review some of the most complicated and sophisticated theories in physics in a way to enable even someone like me to understand..
One thing I don't know if I got it right or wrong More...
Jun 08, 2011
Daniel
rated it:
Really an extraordinary book - I was so captivated that I went through this in two otherwise busy days (only reading snippets here and there when I got the chance).
I started A Brief History of Time a while back (the longer text on which this book is based). The book was interesting, but not enough so to keep me reading through it when I had other things to do. It felt rather like an introductory textbook, and I've had quite enough of those. A BRIEFER History of Time, on the other ha More...
I started A Brief History of Time a while back (the longer text on which this book is based). The book was interesting, but not enough so to keep me reading through it when I had other things to do. It felt rather like an introductory textbook, and I've had quite enough of those. A BRIEFER History of Time, on the other ha More...
Jun 08, 2011
Alexis Komarov
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A Briefer History of Time blew my mind out of the water. I expected greatness, but nothing like what I experienced when reading this masterpiece. I’ve never read a book so fluidly, instead of waiting for the chapters to end I wanted them to keep going and going as long as it meant more precise and elaborately but simply explained wonders of physics.
My dad keeps joking, “So are you going to go become a physicist now instead of a sociobiologist?” In reply I say, “Why would I need t More...
My dad keeps joking, “So are you going to go become a physicist now instead of a sociobiologist?” In reply I say, “Why would I need t More...
Jun 08, 2011
Kristin
rated it:
I was hunting down Halpern's "Collider" (hoping to read it before too much happens--or doesn't--at the new LHC in Geneva) when I stumbled upon this little gem. I hadn't realized that Hawking had recently published a BRIEFER version of the History of Time (also on my to-read list). "Awesome," I thought, given the snail's pace with which I get through books these days. I finished it in about a day and a half.
This book is a terrific follow-on read for the general r More...
This book is a terrific follow-on read for the general r More...
Jun 08, 2011
"Before 1915, space and time were thought of as a fixed arena in which events took place but which was not affected by what happened in it. This was true even of the special theory of relativity. Bodies moved, forces attracted and repelled, but time and space simply continued unaffected. It was natural to think that space and time went on forever. The situation, however, is quite different in the general theory of relativity. Space and time are now dynamic quantities: when a body moves or a
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Jun 08, 2011
Jimmy
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It's been about five years since I took Physics AP in high school, and, in hindsight, I can definitely say that it was one of my more favorite classes that I took back then. But when I went to college, I decided to major in a non-science or math field, mainly because I liked math for the puzzle solving element of it, rather than having to use physics on the job 24/7. Cut to present time, and I finally picked this book up. Obviously, it's not the full version, but rather the shorter, more accessi
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