Book Review: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME
I know reading non-fictional books on the study of the universe and physics isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, however, I would strongly recommend a hot cup of Hawking, (That wasn’t intended to be as dirty as it came off) in his book ‘A Brief History Of Time’.
A Brief History of Time is essentially a dumbed down and simplified explanation of how the study of physics came about from origins in Philosophy and furthered by the progressions of Science, Mathematics, Technology and a basic questioning of the universe around us. Stephen Hawking tries to explain to the everyday person how Physicists and Scientists have been able to come up with the understanding and explanation of the Universe… so far.
Almost anyone who’s seen THE SIMPSONS is aware of Stephen Hawking as the super genius in the wheelchair; however I was a little more than surprised to realize he was involved in conceptualizing the Big Bang Theory (the scientific theory and not the sit-com) Hawking is able to write this book for the layman and not the post graduate with multiple Ph.D.’s, which is good, since I’ve only got the one… in awesome-ness.
Now for Sci-Fi fans, this book I would say is almost a requisite. A lot of concepts which have been made famous by science fiction, in its many iterations, have been explained by the Physicists’ and scientific perspective. Concepts like Time Travel, Theory of Relativity, space travel and Black Holes are explained by Hawking with such simplicity that I was able to completely understand what he put down in under 3 re-readings of each page.
What blew my mind was the fact that Time is completely relative in the sense that Time can only be measured if there was a concept of ‘absolute time’. (a baseline of time that can be used to measure time in other places.) We all think that Greenwich Mean Time is that measurement, but that only applies to Time zones. Time is relative to the observer and elapses based on where the observer is at the time of measurement. *KAPOW* I know!
All in all A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME by Stephen Hawking is a short read in length, but pretty comprehensive when it comes to content. A great read for anyone interested in the creation of the Universe as explained from a human perspective based on the laws that govern our existence. One thing that also caught my eye was the fact that, contrary to common misconception, the origins of our Universe from a scientific perspective doesn’t necessarily conflict with Religious concepts put forth. Hawking actually is open to the possibility of an overseer or ‘Creator’ of the Universe along with scientific models theorized so far…
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