[eBook] A Brief History of Time: From Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking $4.99 @ Amazon AU

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Ori0n on 29/01/2021 - 01:20 amazon.com.au (239 clicks)

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Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries?

These are just some of the questions considered in the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by the world renowned physicist - generally considered to have been one of the world's greatest thinkers.

It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the Big Bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory. To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders.

This new edition includes updates from Stephen Hawking with his latest thoughts about the No Boundary Proposal and offers new information about dark energy, the information paradox, eternal inflation, the microwave background radiation observations, and the discovery of gravitational waves.

It was published in tandem with the app, Stephen Hawking's Pocket Universe.

'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

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• 

  bargaino on 29/01/2021 - 01:26

  +2

  This new edition includes updates from Stephen Hawking with his latest thoughts about the No Boundary Proposal

  And what are Stephen Hawking's latest thoughts? He must have a new perspective, these last 3 years.

  • 

    Seni0r El Cheapo on 29/01/2021 - 13:32

    -1

    why asking us? go ask him :-D

    • 

      This is the-way on 29/01/2021 - 17:39

      -1

      is that a threat? ;)

      • 

        Seni0r El Cheapo on 29/01/2021 - 17:43

        Recommendation

        • 

          This is the-way on 30/01/2021 - 02:00

          +1

          @Seni0r El Cheapo: "I wouldn't press that button, Mr Bond. It might be the last thing you do."

          Bond: "Is that a threat?"

          "Let's call it a… recommendation."

• 

  jack0 on 29/01/2021 - 02:27

  +1

  This edition was published in 2015. The first edition was released in 1988.

• 

  Shiq1 on 29/01/2021 - 06:14

  +1

  If this was done in a robo voice, it would sound like he is reading the book to you

• 

  bargain huntress on 29/01/2021 - 07:10

  +1

  thanks op

  good deal $8 for ebook + audiobook if add audible naration

  i might just listen to text to speech though - so it sounds like it's read by the author

  i miss him

• 

  vchoy on 29/01/2021 - 07:17

  -2

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn7-fVtT16k

  "There are ten million million million million million million million million million particles in the universe that we can observe

  Your mama took the ugly one's and put them into one nerd…

  ouch

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 29/01/2021 - 11:14

    Did your "mama" (and presumably "dada") happen to take the witless particles, or did you manage to develop that incompetence yourself over time? My money's on the latter.

• 

  alvian on 29/01/2021 - 11:14

  Was there a beginning of time?

  Yes. Time begins with the Big Bang. There may be new physics "before time" ("before" the Big Bang) but not with our current understanding of physics.

  Time also has ends. These occur at black hole singularities, where/when our theories breakdown mathematically.

  Could time run backwards?

  Yes but time reversal is only observable on the quantum scale. On the macroscopic scale entropy takes over to break time reversal symmetry.

  Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries?

  All commonly accepted cosmology theories describe an infinite but expanding universe.

  • 

    bargaino on 29/01/2021 - 16:45

    alvian,
    if you can prove all those claims, an Nobel prize awaits :-)

    • 

      alvian on 29/01/2021 - 16:47

      These are undergrad year 3/4 level physics. Nothing Nobel prize about them.

      One of Hawking's great insight was to realise that by working backwards in time using the mathematics of black holes, you will obtain a theory of the Big Bang. As space-time and physics break down at the black hole singularity, so they would break down at the instance of the Big Bang. Hawking described the idea in this book, but you need to know general relativity to understand the mathematics.

      If you can formulate a theory for black hole singularities and the Big Bang that does not break down, you will become the greatest physicist of all time… until someone who can explain dark matter and dark energy, and why there are so much more particles than anti-particles in the universe comes along.

      Time reversal symmetry in the quantum scale is a well-known phenomenon. Broadly speaking, anti-particles propagating forward in time are indistinguishable from particles propagating backward in time. When this symmetry is violated, new and interesting physics might be found and there might be a Nobel Prize in this research.

      An infinite but expanding universe is well described by standard cosmology. A couple of Nobel Prizes and the title of "the greatest" await the people who can explain why the expansion is accelerating instead of slowing down. Australia's Brian Schmidt got one in 2011 for measuring the rate of acceleration.

      • 

        bargaino on 29/01/2021 - 17:37

        As space-time and physics break down at the black hole singularity,

        You mean the model breaks down. The model has a singularity, not reality (whatever that might mean). Physicists often confuse people by not making that distinction.

        using the mathematics of black holes, you will obtain a theory of the Big Bang.

        I seem to remember he had an idea for avoiding the singularity. (A sort of transformation?) I read the book long ago, and it did not have much detail - the publisher forbade him to include any equations. But I believe the idea went out of favour, and this newer edition had a replacement "No Boundary Proposal". Am I close?

        but you need to know general relativity to understand the mathematics.

        Surely the other way around? Or are you making a joke about causality and time symmetry? (metajoke)

        • 

          alvian on 29/01/2021 - 18:03

          @bargaino:

          The model has a singularity, not reality

          Physics aims to describe nature using the language of mathematics. When the mathematical models break down then there is nothing you can say about the physical phenomenon. There is no absolute "reality" as all measurements are relative (general relativity) and subjective (quantum physics & the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox).

          When mathematics break down at a singularity, absolutely no conclusion can be drawn. It is both wrong to say there exists, and/or there does not exist, a "reality" at the singularity. The only correct answer with our current physics is that we don't know what is going on there (because no information ever flows out of the event horizon so it can never be observed and measured) but it looks like space-time ceases to exist. We guessed this because just before we reach the singularity, our theories show the size of space-time goes to 0, clocks stop, and densities, curvatures and gravity go to ∞. Does the non-existence of space-time imply the non-existence of reality? Physicists will say we cannot tell given our current understandings.

          Metaphysics aim to understand abstract concepts such as being, knowing, identity, time, and space. Physics and metaphysics are not the same and your interpretation that reality continues to exist in spite of reaching a singularity is a question for metaphysics.

          Hawking's No Boundary Proposal is an alternative description for the Big Bang singularity. Instead of starting from a zero-size space-time and infinite densities everywhere, he proposed a smooth beginning to the universe. A naïve expansion of the Big Bang singularity lead to a clumpy universe, not the broadly smooth one we see today. One way to fix this is with an initial inflation of the cosmos, the other way is Hawking's NBP. See here for more detail and the current status of NBP.