A Brief History of Time written by the one and only Stephen Hawkings is a must read for all science lovers.This book written way back in 1987 gives one a complete insight into the universe, space-time, black-holes, origin and fate of the universe and the close bondage of time with space and all the stuff about uncertainty principle.All this without any equation whatsoever.Except for the great Einstein’s mass energy relation.He has taken great care in explaining both the theoritical and practical parts of physics and laws governing the universe in the words of common man.
Sir Stephen Hawkings though ailing with the disease even at the time of writing this book has taken special notice of the people who would always avoid mathematics while reading about the universe and so he has not used equations but has given some great graphs like the space-time cone.As he says in the preface, ’’For every equation I add, the reader’s circle would reduce by half’’.Thus this book makes the reader’s job easy because one can easily grasp the things Mr.Hawkings has wanted to express.
The book has 11 great chapters written with absolute care and precision.A brief summary of all the chapters are given below.
1.Our Picture of the Universe
2.Space and Time
3.The Expanding Universe
4.The Uncertainty Principle
5.Elementary Particles and the Forces of Nature
6.Black Holes
7.Black Holes Ain’t So Black
8.The Origin and Fate of the Universe
9.The Arrow of Time
10.The Unification of Physics
11.Conclusion
The following are some of the great quotes and extracts from the book.
’’At the big bang itself, the universe is thought to have had zero size, and so to have been infinitely hot. But as the universe expanded, the temperature of the radiation decreased. One second after the big bang, it would have fallen to about ten thousand million degrees. This is about a thousand times the temperature at the center of the sun, but temperatures as high as this are reached in H-bomb explosions.’’
’’We see the universe the way it is because we exist.’’ This is probably the greatest and the most deeply meant quote in the book. This is the quote of the century in my opinion.
One could say: ’’The boundary condition of the universe is that it has no boundary.’’ The universe would be completely self-contained and not affected by anything outside itself. It would neither be created nor destroyed. It would just BE.
The idea that space and time may form a closed surface without boundary also has profound implications for the role of God in the affairs of the universe. With the success of scientific theories in describing events, most people have come to believe that God allows the universe to evolve according to a set of laws and does not intervene in the universe to break these laws.
’’Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases.’’
These are some extracts from the book and this itself might suggest how good the book is.
Thus, the book is a bible and a must read for all science lovers and all those people who are wondering about the mysteries of the universe.In conclusion, I can say that if someone dosent possess this book, then this review atleast would help his cause in gaining sufficient knowledge about the book and the contents.This book is a priceless possession and it is definitely worth more than what its actual price is and one should definitely possess it.