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46th out of 63 books
—
58 voters
The Red Limit
by
Timothy Ferris (Goodreads Author),
Carl Sagan
For centuries, it was assumed that our universe was static. In the late 1920s, astronomers defeated this assumption with a startling new discovery. From Earth, the light of distant galaxies appeared to be red, meaning that those galaxies were receding from us. This led to the revolutionary realization that the universe is expanding. "The Red Limit" is the tale of this disc...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
June 20th 1983
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1977)
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I read this chiefly as a result of a misunderstanding. The date given on the BN website gives one the impression that the book was revised in 2009, but it was actually revised in 1983, and thus even as a layman's introduction to cosmology and the "red limit" it is unsuitable. Had I known that the actual revision date was 1983 (or had I been more diligent in checking) I wouldn't have bothered, because cosmology as Ferris described it in 1983 and cosmology as it is debated today are two very diffe...more
Ferris begins this book by writing, "In the time it takes to read this sentence, the Earth will glide 200 miles in its orbit around the sun, the sun 3,000 miles in its orbit around the center of our galaxy, and 350,000 miles of additional space will have opened up between our galaxy and those of the Hydra cluster as the universe goes on expanding." Later, Ferris ties the outer edges of space back to the earth: "Imagine light from a distant galaxy traveling a billion light-years and then encounte...more
The Red Limit tells the story of the discoveries that led to our current understanding of the universe. In the past, our picture was one of a static universe containing only one galaxy (the Milky Way). Over time, scientific discoveries have shifted our view to a dynamic universe that began with the big bang, expanded to its present size, is filled with hundreds of billions of galaxies, and is continuing to expand at an ever increasing rate. Along with this understanding, humanities view of itsel...more
My major disappointment with this book is I was expecting a book on cosmology, but it's a book on history. If you're looking for a book that personalizes the characters involved in discoveries of space, this is probably what you want. Unfortunately, it seems just about every book written about space dedicates at least half its pages to reviewing this history, so if you've already done some reading on the topic, this is an old story to you. If you're looking on information on space or current res...more
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There are not a lot of Astronomy books that can survive a couple decades without feeling out of date. I just recently watched BBC Planets that came out in 1999, and there was a lot of date. Timothy though delves into the history of astronomical thinking, and where we have come up to the point when this was published which was 1977. At times it gets a bit dry when it delves into mathematical principles but that was a lot of astronomy is, but he keeps it interested in telling the stories of the li...more
Dec 18, 2008
Tom
is currently reading it
Mom gave me this book.
I'm currently reading it to my 5 year old son.
His choice, not mine. But, we are both enjoying it.
I'm currently reading it to my 5 year old son.
His choice, not mine. But, we are both enjoying it.
A good physics book! A bit heavy on cosmology. Towards the end, it get's a little bit far-out, but that's the 1970's for you.
May 14, 2013
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Timothy Ferris is the author of a dozen books (most recently The Science of Liberty), plus 200 articles and essays, and three documentary films—"The Creation of the Universe," “Life Beyond Earth,” and “Seeing in the Dark”—seen by over 20 million viewers.
Ferris produced the Voyager phonograph record, an artifact of human civilization containing music and sounds of Earth launched aboard the twin Voy...more
More about Timothy Ferris...
Ferris produced the Voyager phonograph record, an artifact of human civilization containing music and sounds of Earth launched aboard the twin Voy...more
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Nov 07, 2010 09:59am