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Introducing Graphic Guides
Introducing Time
Traces the history of time from Augustine's suggestion that there is no time, to the flowing time of Newton, the static time of Einstein, and then back, to the idea that there is no time in quantum gravity.
176 pages, Paperback
First published August 29, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
April 2, 2018
Difficult No Matter How You Do It
This is an outstanding summary of the scientific and philosophical views about time over the last 150 years. It is indeed and excellent introduction, particularly in its identification of the principle names which can be consulted for more detailed explanations. What it doesn’t do is make it any less arduous to understand what various theories mean. Time is simply enigmatic even when its enigmas are accounted for by a clever thinker. So, no short-cuts, therefore, to stretching one’s thinking beyond its comfort zone.
This is an outstanding summary of the scientific and philosophical views about time over the last 150 years. It is indeed and excellent introduction, particularly in its identification of the principle names which can be consulted for more detailed explanations. What it doesn’t do is make it any less arduous to understand what various theories mean. Time is simply enigmatic even when its enigmas are accounted for by a clever thinker. So, no short-cuts, therefore, to stretching one’s thinking beyond its comfort zone.
June 29, 2019
With this book I had hoped I would get a good introduction to the views of physicists on the notion of "time". That impression was reinforced by the elaborate use of cartoons. But that was a miscalculation. Callender has made a sort of encyclopaedia of scientific debates about "time". It’s so short in information and the cartoons are not really clarifying, so that it was rather a letdown. Perhaps it's more enjoyable when you already know more on this topic. See my larger review in my Sense-of-History-account, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 6, 2017
"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils." Hector Berlioz (169)
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October 21, 2024The notion of time remains problematic, not only to philosophers and psychologists, but apparently also to physicists. That is the conclusion that I can draw from this booklet. Craig Callender gives a fairly dry list of all debates that have raged or are raging among physicists about time. For example about the possibility of time travel, about the (ir)reversibility of time (the famous second law of thermodynamica) and about the surprising question of whether time really exists. Of course, the consequences of the theory of relativity repeatedly are touched upon and in the end also briefly the quantum theory.
But I must honestly say that this booklet has not taught me much, unless that time remains a problematic notion in physics as well. In most cases, Callender is so brief in his expositions that his discourse has a very theoretical slant: he cites various models (amongst others that of Gödel) that show that travel through time is logically possible but impossible in practice. I don't doubt Callender's expertise in this domain, but for my purpose - a better understanding of the physical notion of time - this really added little. Perhaps others with another focus will be more captivated by this little book.
But I must honestly say that this booklet has not taught me much, unless that time remains a problematic notion in physics as well. In most cases, Callender is so brief in his expositions that his discourse has a very theoretical slant: he cites various models (amongst others that of Gödel) that show that travel through time is logically possible but impossible in practice. I don't doubt Callender's expertise in this domain, but for my purpose - a better understanding of the physical notion of time - this really added little. Perhaps others with another focus will be more captivated by this little book.
December 29, 2010
This was an enjoyable, if at times confusing little synopsis of time and the various theories concerned with it. While I admire the attempt to make such a topic available to a wider audience, time theories really don't lend themselves well to comprehension in the absence of well-developed prior knowledge in the appropriate areas of physics and philosophy, making this book a little tough at times despite (or probably because of) its brevity.
May 8, 2025
Time!!!!! Time is so 🤔🤔🤔🤔🙂↕️🙂↕️🧐🧐🧐 at first but then it's just 😵😵😵💫😵💫😱🤯🤯🫨🫨😳🥴🥴🥴 u know what i mean???
June 23, 2014
This is an excellent book about an apparently simple, yet very complex subject. Time is a subject that we all think we know, until we really start to think about it. Superb read!!!
In this book, Callender and Edney describe some of the attempts by scientists and philosophers to precisely define what time is. Some argue that to be logically consistent, time cannot exist. That of course seems absurd, whatever else we may know, at least locally, time does have an existence and a direction. Newton, Einstein, Godel and others have refined the concept, Einstein in particular demonstrated that the passage of time is slowed when the objects are traveling at high rates of speed. Although the authors do an excellent job using cartoons and other visual devices, the true nature of time is a difficult topic. Like the apparent fate of the universe, in the end, time simply comes down to an overall increase in entropy, for that is the way we recognize the passage of time.
Time is a concept that all humans have a fundamental grasp of. We all know that there is a direction to the events of our lives and that once an event happens, to the best of our knowledge it will always have happened. We break it down into units of years, days, hours, and minutes and in the last minute of some sporting events, tenths of seconds. However, when we really try to get a precise intellectual handle on it, time becomes fuzzy and it is very difficult to be precise. The passage of time is also relative to the situation; a few minutes in a dentist chair can appear to be much longer, yet a few hours with our true love can seem like minutes.
In this book, Callender and Edney describe some of the attempts by scientists and philosophers to precisely define what time is. Some argue that to be logically consistent, time cannot exist. That of course seems absurd, whatever else we may know, at least locally, time does have an existence and a direction. Newton, Einstein, Godel and others have refined the concept, Einstein in particular demonstrated that the passage of time is slowed when the objects are traveling at high rates of speed. Although the authors do an excellent job using cartoons and other visual devices, the true nature of time is a difficult topic. Like the apparent fate of the universe, in the end, time simply comes down to an overall increase in entropy, for that is the way we recognize the passage of time.
Time is a concept that all humans have a fundamental grasp of. We all know that there is a direction to the events of our lives and that once an event happens, to the best of our knowledge it will always have happened. We break it down into units of years, days, hours, and minutes and in the last minute of some sporting events, tenths of seconds. However, when we really try to get a precise intellectual handle on it, time becomes fuzzy and it is very difficult to be precise. The passage of time is also relative to the situation; a few minutes in a dentist chair can appear to be much longer, yet a few hours with our true love can seem like minutes.
July 10, 2014
Fascinating. I plunged right into the book and the first 30% at least was a breeze because I was already familiar with it. Afterwards, I started reading slowly but concepts were often concisely (or just briefly?) explained and the visual aid help too. Sometimes though, the comics got in the way of the explanation and it may not be all that necessary to have a picture of every page.... I suspect a lot of the concepts have been simplified, but not to an extreme extent. Several pages are dedicated to lesser-known ideas. Even if the ideas are complex at first glance,the book is organised enough that you've gained knowledge of prerequisite concepts to grasp newer ones more easily. The ideas and theories about time are, for the most part, organised chronologically. :)
January 30, 2009
I don't think I've ever had to work so hard to read a book. I stopped and re-read time and time again, but I had to because Introducing Time seriously blew my fucking mind every five pages or so. And once I'd re-read the introductory concepts enough to proceed, I've never been so fascinated. By the end of it, I was eating a bagel, and the whole existence and structure of the universe suddenly made sense to me. You certainly won't get that from Stephen King.
September 6, 2014
Despite its being recommended by Sean Carroll on his Time TCC lecture, it is a very brief overview of all the topics regarding time in physics. It's hard to grasp any deeper notion of anything. This book can be considered just an introduction to the subject. And the illustrations do not help so much, as they are very simple and superficial.
January 28, 2010
Ah. Comic Books.
April 16, 2015
Need to read a bit at a time to digest the difficult concepts. Excellent book, very thorough, good illustrations to help with understanding :-)
June 25, 2016
I felt many concepts were unclear. The dialog bubbles didn't seem helpful or fitting most of the time. Interesting topic but the book failed to generate much understanding or enthusiasm.
February 14, 2017
Not a bad little book. It was a bit oversimplified for my current level of understanding regarding this topic, but a fun read just the same.
July 15, 2019
Cool basics of time, read this as prep for an interview with the author for the Dickheads (Philip K. Dick ) podcast. Will include link in review when it is done.
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July 29, 2022"Spacetime might also be non-orientable in time. Think of the arrows in a Mobius strip indicating the direction in which the local future lies. Then at a certain point in your travels the past and future exchange places! The mobius twist in this case is oriented in time."
September 9, 2021
Think of it as a summary book that you could use to explore the subject in more detail. It would work well with a bright high school student who wanted to do more with it.
May 10, 2020
Time. Does it exist? Does it not? I still don’t know. Apparently no one does. But this book does a great job of summarizing the history of thought around time, the major theories from St Augustine to present (well, 2001 when the book was written, anyway).
As a primarily visual learner and easily distracted reader, I found the illustrations extremely helpful to understand the concepts presented.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to dip their toe in the water before delving into more thorough investigations on the question of time.
As a primarily visual learner and easily distracted reader, I found the illustrations extremely helpful to understand the concepts presented.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to dip their toe in the water before delving into more thorough investigations on the question of time.
September 2, 2023
Ci sta, semplice da leggere e molto veloce. Panoramica grande sulla visione del tempo e ti fa fare sia un ripasso del liceo sia da qualche spunto di riflessione nuovo
March 14, 2018
Mindblowing for someone who is completely new to Physics and Philosophy.
March 29, 2021
This was the third book I read from the Graphic Guide series. I read Relativity and Quantum Theory prior to this. I have to say this book, which is about time, had a better explanation of simultaneity in Einstein's relativity than the one offered in the Relativity book, and also a better explanation of Entropy than the Quantum Theory book. The drawings were sharp and more to the point than the other two. I found the explanations mostly understandable.
UPDATE 30/Mar/2021:
I highly recommend this video on YouTube:
When is Now? - It's Okay To Be Smart
It illustrates some of the concepts in the book very beautifully, and talks about some that weren't in the book.
UPDATE 30/Mar/2021:
I highly recommend this video on YouTube:
When is Now? - It's Okay To Be Smart
It illustrates some of the concepts in the book very beautifully, and talks about some that weren't in the book.
December 31, 2022
“By 1800 BC, the ancient Babylonians had divided the day into hours, the hour into sixty minutes, and the minute into sixty seconds.”
This is another one of those books where you start to feel the contents of your head melting as you get deeper and deeper into it. I obviously didn't keep up with everything, but I did get enough out of this to gain some further understanding on this tricky subject.
“A second is defined precisely to be 9,192,631,770 vibrations of the cesium atom! The NIST F-1 (with similar clock in Paris) is the most accurate clock in the world today.”
But even this clock will lose nearly a full second every 20 million years…so there you go. This provides quite a decent overview and introduction to novices like myself, and I really enjoyed the art work too.
This is another one of those books where you start to feel the contents of your head melting as you get deeper and deeper into it. I obviously didn't keep up with everything, but I did get enough out of this to gain some further understanding on this tricky subject.
“A second is defined precisely to be 9,192,631,770 vibrations of the cesium atom! The NIST F-1 (with similar clock in Paris) is the most accurate clock in the world today.”
But even this clock will lose nearly a full second every 20 million years…so there you go. This provides quite a decent overview and introduction to novices like myself, and I really enjoyed the art work too.
October 1, 2008
Great for the visual learner. This book explains everything about time from all the different ways of measuring time (weights and springs to quartz crystals and atoms) to the scientists who are curently working on ways to travel through time. This is not just a science book. It also touches on the logical possibility and philisophical problems of time travel. For example: If you invented a time machine to go back in time and prevented the assasination of Lincoln, you would not have had a reason to invent the time machine in the first place because Lincoln was never assasinated ... because you prevented it? Fun stuff.
January 19, 2015
This book shares the problem of structural clarity faced by the entire 'Introducing xxx: a Graphic Guide' series. Conceptual flow was generally sensible throughout the first half of the book with tensed and tenseless views of time (and their implications plus some common rejoinders), but once one moves into the second half of the book, seemingly marginally related diversions sprout up with much greater frequency.
Some diversions are understandable, but some require a substantial amount of effort to unpack. Of course that difficulty could simply be due to the nature of the subject (time) itself, but I find perhaps a bit more lucidity could have been strived for.
Some diversions are understandable, but some require a substantial amount of effort to unpack. Of course that difficulty could simply be due to the nature of the subject (time) itself, but I find perhaps a bit more lucidity could have been strived for.
May 2, 2011
I read this partly as research for my novel project, but mostly just for fun, because I am slightly obsessed with time dilemmas. Just slightly. *cough*
Though this book is by no means exhaustive, it's a great basic overview of the various theories of time and time travel. It tries to condense them each into a couple of pages that can be easily swallowed by a casual reader, but you will still be required to do some mental gymnastics. That's the fun of it all, though!
Though this book is by no means exhaustive, it's a great basic overview of the various theories of time and time travel. It tries to condense them each into a couple of pages that can be easily swallowed by a casual reader, but you will still be required to do some mental gymnastics. That's the fun of it all, though!
April 27, 2013
Part of a series of graphic and pocket-size science and social subject books which include facts, theories and philosophical ideas. The heavy subject matter is lightened visually by graphic-style illustrations. Highly recommended for YA readers and for adults who are interested in a quick description and overview of esoteric subjects such as Time, Logic, Feminism, Ethics, et al.
July 26, 2013
I am a huge fan of this series of books and although I have mostly outgrown them (I have gone on to study Physics at university), I would definitely recommend them to younger people looking to expand their knowledge base but also to Adults who have not had much or any formal training in the subject. An entertaining Introduction to Time.
November 15, 2014
Birazda Interstellar'ın (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/?...) etkisi ile okumaya başladım kitabı. Aristodan başlayıp, Newton fiziği zaman öngörüsü ile devam ediyor. Sonra ise tabiki de herşeyi değiştiren adam Einstein ve görelilik kanunları var. Konuya çok ilgiliyseniz kesinlikle yeterli değil ancak yeni başlayorsanız okumananızda fayda var. Zaman acaba sizin bildiğiniz zaman mı? :)
January 24, 2015
Kitap kesinlikle beklentilerimi karşıladı. Böyle küçük bir kitaptan sizin için zamanın gizemini çözmesini bekliyorsanız yanılıyorsunuz, başlamayın derim. Başarılı bir şekilde zamana yönelik doğru sorular yöneltip size bu konu üzerinde nasıl araştırmalar yapacağınıza dair öncülük yapacak bir eser bence.
April 3, 2018
Latest re-read: 2/6/2016
At some point the theories don't really work without explaining the math behind them, and the nature of the précis neglects more thorough examination of concepts that really need them. Still, Always worth a read.
At some point the theories don't really work without explaining the math behind them, and the nature of the précis neglects more thorough examination of concepts that really need them. Still, Always worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews