A Briefer History of Time
The science classic made more accessible and more concise. Illustrated. Updated with new research.Stephen Hawking's worldwide bestseller, A Brief History of Time, has been a landmark volume in scientific writing. Its author's engaging voice is one reason, and the compelling subjects he addresses is another: the nature of space and time, the role of God in creation, the history and future of the universe. But it is also true that in the years since its publication, readers have repeatedly told Professor Hawking of their great difficulty in understanding some of the book's most important concepts.This is the origin of and the reason for A Briefer History of Time: its author's wish to make its content accessible to readers — as well as to bring it up-to-date with the latest scientific observations and findings.Although this book is literally somewhat 'briefer', it actually expands on the great subjects of the original. Purely technical concepts, such as the mathematics of chaotic boundary conditions, are gone. Conversely, subjects of wide interest that were difficult to follow because they were interspersed throughout the book have now been given entire chapters of their own, including relativity, curved space, and quantum theory.This reorganization has allowed the authors to expand areas of special interest and recent progress, from the latest developments in string theory to exciting developments in the search for a complete, unified theory of all the forces of physics.
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4recommend
9mentions
9people
2010–2026years
44% recommend44% neutral11% critical
Mentions per year
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- There is also time dilation from motion through space (motion through space + motion through time is equal to the speed of light, so as you speed up, your motion through time slows down) as well as time dilation due to gravity (like when near a black hole I think).
I'm also not a physicist, but read some popsci books in my youth like "A brief history of time" from Stephen Hawking (it's written for normal people). That's probably the best book you'd want. He later wrote a more modernized version called "a briefer history of time" as well. They both cover time dilation from a high level iirc. Of course, to truly understand you'd need to learn the math. I'm looking forward to doing that during retirement in a few decades.
- It's a good list; but lets not ignore the pure sciences either! Text books are usually pretty boring so "A Briefer History of Time" should be on there. "Nemesis" maybe because it's a good story as well.
- A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
A Briefer History of Time - Stephen Hawking
- Anything from Sagan: Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God could convert the Pope to agnosticism.
Stephen Ray Gould: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin: will both challenge every preconceived notion you've had, link seemingly impossibly unrelated phenomenon together using similar models and patterns, and leave with a much more intuitive understanding about complexity, randomness, and chaotic systems.
A Briefer History of Time: For those who truly would like to exalt their personal God of the Gaps to the small unit.
- My reading list:
1. A Briefer History of Time
2. Serious Cryptography
3. Lifshitz & Landau's Fluid Mechanics
4. Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets
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