Customer Reviews

Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction

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Professor Coles' book on cosmology in the VSI series is a very good introduction to the subject. If you search for a first book on the subject, that's it (although you can also choose Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time and the contents of these two books could complement with each other)! It provides an overview of the key concepts of cosmology in non-technical language while preserving room for deeper thought and exploration for those who are not satisfied with an introduction.

In my opinion, Chapter 2 provides the best simplified exposition of Einstein's relativity and here and there the book shows very clear exposition of the Hubble's law with kept-to-minimum mathematical presentation which is comprehensible by the general reader without relevant training at all.

Although it may be my own problem, I cannot quite get hold of the key concept of the Friedmann models. The models are first presented in Chapter 3 but they are often quoted in later chapters. Reading them all together, I fail to make a coherent understanding on the models.

I recently bought this book in hope to learn a little bit more about cosmology and physics. This book covers the history of it in detail as well as a large amount of information on the Big Bang Theory (Hot Big Bang Theory). It was written in terms that are quite easy to understand and even has diagrams and illustrations along the way. For anyone looking for a beginners guide to physics, astrophysics or just a good history lesson on some of the great minds of the last 500 years definitely pick up this book.