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Review
“This book marries a child’s wonder to a genius’s intellect. We journey into Hawking’s universe while marvelling at his mind.”—The Sunday Times (London)
“Masterful.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Charming and lucid . . . [A book of] sunny brilliance.”—The New Yorker
“Lively and provocative . . . Mr. Hawking clearly possesses a natural teacher’s gifts—easy, good-natured humor and an ability to illustrate highly complex propositions with analogies plucked from daily life.”—The New York Times
“Even as he sits helpless in his wheelchair, his mind seems to soar ever more brilliantly across the vastness of space and time to unlock the secrets of the universe.”—Time --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Poor Book,
This review is from: A Brief History of Time (Paperback)
This is a poor book. Stephen Hawking knows his stuff, but he is very bad at conveying that information to others. He doesn't go into enough detail to allow the user to understand the physics behind the subject and consequently the book has a very "so-there", "Because it just is!!" quality to it. For example, Early in the book he states that time moves slower close to the gravitational field of a large object, like the earth. He doesn't go into any detail, or explain this. I know that it it because gravity and acceleration are the same, and as einstien showed, going faster causes time to move slower. But if I wasn't familiar with relativity I wouldn't have understood this, and wouldn't have felt that I had learned anything. I hit problems at chapter 6, "Black Holes" because I know very little about them, and thus didn't feel like could follow the chapter. The book has a reputation of being one in which people can't get past the first few chapters. Well I think this is why. A better example of a good way to learn a subject is through the books of Richard Dawkins. Upon reading his books I always come away with an excellant understanding of the topic. It's a shame that this book wasn't in a similar style.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hawking is succinct, even-handed, and even funny.,
By
This review is from: A Brief History of Time (Paperback)
A Brief History of Time is 3 things at once:First, it is a chronology of the various important scientists and discoveries over the centuries, all leading to where we are now. Second, it explains, between the beginner and intermediate levels, an understanding of concepts such as black holes, worm holes, the beginning and potential end of time, particles and waves, quantum mechanics, and other issues in science. Third, it is almost an autobiography of Dr. Hawking's scientific life. He interjects wonderful bits of humor and explains the concepts carefully and as simply as he can. He is also respectful of religion, briefly interjecting his ideas about how religion does not have to be incompatible with the rapidly expanding ideas of science, and that religion should embrace science more. One part I found humorous was his explanation of a bet he lost with a colleague (he seems to have a lot of long-standing bets going). He owned up to being wrong, and paid the penalty, which was a "one-year subscription to Penthouse, to the outrage of [his colleague's] liberated wife." This book is for physics experts as well as people who know nothing about science and just want to learn some of the basic concepts. Like the universe, expand your mind.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Wonderful Original Edition Of Hawking's Book!,
By Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: A Brief History of Time (Paperback)
For those of us curious enough to actually open the covers of this remarkable exposition of very sophisticated scientific concepts laid simpler and comprehensible in Professor Stephen Hawking's disarmingly straightforward style, this original version of the now updated text is indeed a veritable treasure trove of layman's explanations for some wondrous scientific phenomena. Hawking, who is still a Lecturer in Physics at Cambridge University despite an progressively debilitating neuro-muscular disease, has a rather unique capability to eschew anything other than the bare minimum of all the otherwise stupefying scientific mumbo-jumbo as he explains various aspects of the expanding universe as black holes, the nature of time, the so-called "big bang", and of course, gravity itself. Hawking addresses the fundamental nature of physics as he proceeds to sift through these fascinating and long enduring mysteries of the universe. As a result, then, his somewhat rhetorical questions are presented for the single purpose of elucidating some interesting, provocative, and fairly indisputable answers to the nearly timeless ponderings we all seem to harbor about this wider world we all inhabit. Still one's consciousness seems to struggle in vain to consider the sheer scale of such conceptual configurations, with concepts that appear to be so immense and so dislocated to anything within our common experience while absorbed in our ordinary day-to- day time-space continuum as to give any among us a reeling and recurring case of vertigo. Of course, such a realization merely serves to magnify the sheer scope of the author's accomplishment in conceptualizing and executing such an approachable and accessible text, one that so vividly describes the origins and nature of our universe. This is a marvelous book, and one I can heartily recommend. Enjoy!
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