Abouttime : Einstein's unfinished revolution / Paul Davies.
By: Davies, P. C. W
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Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General Lending | MTU Bishopstown Library Lending | 530.11 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00015085 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
In About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution Paul Davies confronts the puzzles and paradoxes of time that have bemused the world's greatest thinkers throughout the ages.
When Albert Einstein formulated his theory of relativity it brought about a revolution in our understanding of time, yet also presented a new set of mysteries. Einstein's time can be warped, leading to bizarre possibilities such as black holes and time travel, while making a nonsense of our perception of a 'now' or a division of time into past, present and future.
In About Time Paul Davies tackles the tough questions about time, including the strange relationship between physical time and our psychological perception of it. He gives straightforward descriptions of topics such as the theory of relativity, the relation between time dilation and the speed of light and Hawking's 'imaginary time'. He concludes that, despite decades of progress in unravelling the mysteries of time, the revolution is still underway...
'Confirms his place as one of the most lucid and readable science writers today' - Sunday Times
'Intriguing and important ... a fascinating discussion of why Einstein's can't be the last word on the subject' - Independent on Sunday
'Sublime stuff for armchair physicists' - Guardian
'A tour of some of the most exciting - and outlandish - work in modern physics ... Writing with passion and wit, he lets his scientific message shine through' - New Statesman
Cover title: About time : Einstein's unfinished revolution.
Bibliography: (pages 293-294) and index.
A very brief history of time -- Time for a change -- Timewraps -- Blackholes: gateways to the end of time -- The beginning of time: when exactly was it? -- Einstein's greatest triumph? -- Quantum time -- Imaginary time -- The arrow of time -- Backwards in time -- Time travel: fact or fantasy? -- Experimenting with time -- The unfinished revolution.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Preface
- Prologue
- Chapter 1 A Very Brief History of Time
- Whose time is it anyway?
- The quest for eternity
- Escape from time
- Cyclic worlds and the eternal return
- Newton's time and the clockwork universe
- Einstein's time
- Is the universe dying?
- The return of the eternal return
- The start of it all
- It happens when it happens
- Chapter 2 Time for a Change
- A gift from heavenGoodbye to the ether
- A timely solution
- Interlude
- Stretching time
- The puzzle of the twins
- Goodbye to the present
- Time is money
- Timescape
- Chapter 3 Timewarps
- The light barrier
- Perpetual motion and the uphill struggle
- Why time runs faster in space
- The clock in the box
- The best clock in the universe
- The echo that arrived late
- Going up in the world
- Chapter 4 Black Holes: Gateways to the End of Time
- Warp factor infinity
- A dark mystery
- Penetrating the magic circle
- A singular problem
- Beyond the end of time
- Are they really out there?
- Chapter 5 The Beginning of Time: When Exactly Was It?
- The great clock in the sky
- The big bang, and what happened before it
- Older than the universe?
- Einstein's greatest mistake
- Two-timing the cosmos
- Chapter 6 Einstein's Greatest Triumph?
- The handwriting of God
- Did the big bang ever happen?
- What's a few billion years among friends?
- A repulsive problem
- The loitering universe
- Chapter 7 Quantum Time
- Time to tunnel
- Watched kettles 166
- Erasing the past
- Spooky signals and psychic particles
- Faster than light?
- The time vanishes!
- Chapter 8 Imaginary Time
- The two cultures revisited
- How time got started
- The Hattie-Hawking theory
- Imaginary clocks
- Chapter 9 The Arrow of Time
- Catching the wave
- Signals from the future
- A matter of time reversal
- The particle that can tell the time
- The lopsided universe
- Chapter 10 Backwards in Time
- Into reverse
- Thinking backwards
- Antiworlds
- Winding the clock back
- Hawking's greatest mistake
- A time for everybody
- Chapter 11 Time Travel: Fact or Fantasy?
- Signaling the past
- Visiting the past
- Black-hole time machines
- Wormholes and strings
- Paradox
- Chapter 12 But What Time Is It Now?
- Can time really flow?
- The myth of passage
- Does the arrow of time fly?
- Why now?
- Chapter 13 Experimenting with Time
- How long does the present last?
- Now you see it, now you don't
- Filling in time
- Subjective time
- The back door to our minds
- Chapter 14 The Unfinished Revolution
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Ever since the huge commercial success of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (LJ 4/15/88), publishers have brought forth dozens of books examining the physical and theoretical foundations of time. With most of these titles continuing to sell well, the market seems inexhaustible. Thus, Davies's intelligent and provocative elucidation of Einstein's relativity theory and its temporal consequences will probably reach a significant audience. The book's greatest strength is that it is written at a beginning-to-intermediate level; readers who start with this book can grow with it, but those who have read other introductions to the subject will also find it rewarding. Still, it offers little that is new. Despite the book's inherent appeal and the popularity of the author's other works (e.g., The Mind of God, LJ 3/15/92), librarians might want to check how well the subject is already covered in their collections before making a purchase. Perhaps the best single treatment in terms of scope, authority, and breadth of appeal is Kip Thorne's Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy (LJ 4/15/94).-Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
Australian scientist Davies's accessible account of Einstein's theory of relativity and of current scientific theories regarding the nature of time. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reservedCHOICE Review
Time is a basic intuitive concept with which we are all familiar. Its fast pace is recognized by people past fifty, its passage has been reflected upon by writers, its mystery has been mentioned by religious thinkers. It is also a very subtle and intriguing element in physicists' description of the phenomenal world. Einstein is known by the public at large for many things, but not so much for the revolution he wrought on our concept of time. Now, Davies has written yet another intelligent, informative, and interesting book that is also within reach of the average science-educated reader. Taking off from the title, the book is interspersed with subtitles that are plays on words: Time for a Change, Into Reverse, Why Now?, Filling in Time, etc. The book begins with "a very brief history of time" (a pun on another well-known book) and takes the reader right through to the current themes and puzzles with which some physicists keep themselves busy. The reader gets a flavor of time travel and quantum time, of the big bang and black holes, and of the paradox of some stars that seem older than the universe! Davies concludes his book by listing the questions relating to time that still puzzle physicists. He echoes the conclusion of many in the field: still another conceptual revolution is imminent in this context, and that on this matter, to use a popular phrase (attributed to President Reagan), "You ain't seen nuthin' yet." Upper-division undergraduate through faculty. V. V. Raman; Rochester Institute of TechnologyBooklist Review
Ever since Einstein overthrew the Newtonian concept of time as a rigid entity, flowing past us in constant, measurable units, physicists like Davies have molded the fantastic, warpable space time into speculative theories about the origin, direction, and end of time. Davies has a popular leg up on his comrades, being the prolific author of a dozen general-interest works, lately the delightfully grim The Last Three Minutes [BKL O 1 94]. Though more complicated than the run of the physics genre, Davies' topics still are comprehensible, even if their implications strain our ordinary comprehension of time. To help, Davies introduces an Everyman skeptic, who interrupts the text whenever the matter at hand--for instance, time travel, as when "psychic" photons "know" of events in the past--approaches the threshold of weirdness. Scarcely less challenging are the passel of related questions, such as whether time exists within black holes. With his customary clarity, Davies delineates the questions left open by Einstein's theories and the controversial "cosmological constant" that makes his equations work. Good essays best housed in heavily used physics collections. --Gilbert TaylorKirkus Book Review
A prolific popularizer of science, Davies (Physics/Univ. of Adelaide, Australia; The Matter Myth, 1992, etc.) gives a broad survey of concepts of time, a subject he has become intimately acquainted with in his research. In a long ramble interspersed with biographical digressions, personal reflections, and questions from a hypothetical ``skeptic'' baffled by the quantum world, Davies discourses on concepts of time embodied in ancient cultural and religious beliefs; the Newtonian clockwork universe, in which time flows according to unbending mathematical laws; Einstein's theory that time is relative and flexible; and nonintuitive ideas from quantum mechanics. In this light, he interprets the history of human intellectual development. There have been revolutionary changes, he notes, but the story is far from over. Davies is energized by the notion that nature is permissive--that just about anything can happen if it is not forbidden by a physical law. This leads into speculations about exotic phenomena as possible consequences of relativity and quantum mechanics: black holes, strings, time warps, wormholes, time travel, alternative consciousness, and time reversal. This list of current hot topics in theoretical and experimental physics gives a realistic picture of contemporary science. A pleasant surprise is how many examples of these investigations are given from the scientific community working ``down under,'' in Australia and New Zealand. Equally enjoyable are the personal stories, including Davies's recollections of his discussions with Stephen Hawking and others. In an amusing passage, the ``chattering classes'' of British literati are savaged for their ill-considered criticism of Hawking's A Brief History of Time. But the copious epigraphs, while sometimes salient, are often irrelevant or bewildering. For readers new to the subject, Davies offers many ``believe- it-or-not'' tidbits for cocktail-party conversation; the better- informed can glean insights, cultural commentary, and late-breaking reportage on the cosmologically bizarre. (Line drawings)Author notes provided by Syndetics
Paul Davies is an internationally acclaimed physicist, writer and broadcaster. He received degrees in physics from University College, London.He was Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University, Sydney and has held previous academic appointments at the Universities of Cambridge, London, Newcastle upon Tyne and Adelaide. Most of his research has been in the area of quantum field theory in curved spacetime.
Davies has also has written many books for the general reader in the fascinating fields of cosmology and physics. He is the author of over twenty-five books, including The Mind of God, Other Worlds, God and the New Physics, The Edge of Infinity, The Cosmic Blueprint, Are We Alone?, The Fifth Miracle, The Last Three Minutes, About Time, and How to Build a Time Machine.
His awards include an Advance Australia Award for outstanding contributions to science, two Eureka Prizes, the 2001 Kelvin Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics, and the 2002 Faraday Prize by The Royal Society for Progress in religion. He also received the Templeton Prize for his contributions to the deeper implications of science. In April 1999 the asteroid 1992 OG was officially named (6870) Pauldavies in his honour.
(Bowker Author Biography)