A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty

by Dave Goldberg

Hardcover, 2010

Status

Available

Call number

530

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Wiley (2010), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 304 pages

Description

Science. Nonfiction. HTML: Answers to science's most enduring questions from "Can I break the light-speed barrier like on Star Trek?" and "Is there life on other planets?" to "What is empty space made of?" This is an indispensable guide to physics that offers readers an overview of the most popular physics topics written in an accessible, irreverent, and engaging manner while still maintaining a tone of wry skepticism. Even the novice will be able to follow along, as the topics are addressed using plain English and (almost) no equations. Veterans of popular physics will also find their nagging questions addressed, like whether the universe can expand faster than light, and for that matter, what the universe is expanding into anyway. Gives a one-stop tour of all the big questions that capture the public imagination including string theory, quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and the beginning of time Explains serious science in an entertaining, conversational, and easy-to-understand way Includes dozens of delightfully groan-worthy cartoons that explain everything from special relativity to Dark Matter Filled with fascinating information and insights, this book will both deepen and transform your understanding of the universe..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member karyheller

This book is similar in style to many fun and interesting books to read on different science subjects, such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Pluto Files or Stephen Hawkings The Illustrated Brief History of Time. The book does a great job of making physics interesting but it does not come across as too

cheesy. The book also includes a cartoon at the beginning of each chapter that is drawn by the author. These are a great introduction to what will be discussed. It is these types of books that I wish were around when I was in school to make the sciences more fun.

Show Less

9 more

LibraryThing member Basileios919

"The life of a physicist can be a lonely one." So begins the Introduction to this fascinating book. Physicist-authors, Goldberg and Blomquist, might have been lonely when they started this book, but all that is past when readers finish the book. I am sure that the two authors must now refuse social

invitations to talk sense, just as they wrote sense in this book.

Composed in everyday language, this book will benefit lots of readers by applying theories from physics to questions that you have always wanted to ask a physicist. For example, you might have wondered: "Can you change reality just by looking at it?" [43]. While answering the question, the following sentence exemplifies the everyday language of the book: "Scientists had observed that if you shine a beam of ultraviolet light on metals, electrons will pop out" [44].

The book is divided into nine chapters with intriguing titles, such as Chapter 1, 'Special Relativity:' "What Happens if I'm traveling at the speed of light, and I try to look at myself in a mirror?" One of the many interesting features of the book is entertaining line-art figures. Acknowledged artists for "figures," which I assume to imply the line-art drawings in black and white, are Rich Gott and Akira Tonomura [vii]. Take, for example, a caricatured photon depicted on the cover to Chapter 1. The photon is seated at a table with a lamp, and the caption reads: "A photon is grilled to recall the events of the last hundred years." The photon's stunned response is, "I...I don't know! It all happened so fast!" ["fast" is emphasized, p. 7].

One of many delights in the book appears at the end of Chapter 8 [Chapter title --'Extraterrestrials:' "Is there life on other planets?"]. The subsection is entitled "What are the odds against our own existence?" [248-51]. This part of the book deals with the "anthropic principle," a term which Brandon Carter coined in 1974 to name the phenomenon that human beings do exist despite "the utter improbability of our existence" [249]. The authors introduce Carter's term in order to say that there must be some principle(s) supporting intelligent life, otherwise we wouldn't be here to talk about it. The big picture of this section's discussion is that principles of physics and probability statistics do not pair up on many issues, and the existence of intelligent life is but one of many issues.

Further reading suggestions [popular references], a reference list of technical sources, and an index of names and subjects conclude this 296-page book. Buy one for yourself and family, and discuss various sections over an evening meal with family and friends. Children from age 10 - 12 will be able to grasp these ideas, and you can make discussions fun by following suggestions for simple experiments. I suggest trying to draw pictures about what you read, because a picture is worth a thousand words. Besides, pictures make physics fun--as it should become for years to come, thanks to this exciting book.

Show Less

LibraryThing member wookiemonster

I think Stephen Hawking's _A Brief History of Time_ was a better read. Hawking seemed to know better than to list so many things as impossible. Hawking's humor was better, too. Goldberg and Blomquist have a few good jokes, but the attempt to "make physics fun" was more distracting than not.

LibraryThing member Bizzell

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was both extremely informative and a complete pleasure to read.

LibraryThing member BookBlogMuse

A User’s Guide to the Universe
Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantam Uncertainty
By Dave Goldberg and Jeff Blomquist

A User’s Guide to the Universe is the authors’ attempt to educate liberal arts people like me about science and physics. They get brownie points for

trying, but it may be that I am a lost cause. The book jacket calls the book a “plain-English, plain-hilarious handbook (that) ushers you through all of the major discoveries of modern physics”. The authors take basic questions (can I build a time machine; what happened before the Big Bang) and bring the answers down to the level of mere mortals.

I enjoyed the book for the first chapter or so. The authors are amusing and I was able to hang in there with them for a while. But not for long. On the one hand, I hesitate to blame them, as I have to say I lost interest when I couldn’t follow them anymore. On the other, their jokes got old, the analogies stopped working, and I stopped caring.

So, do you read the book or not? If you really want to learn more about physics in a non-threatening way, go for it. But be warned, the authors’ style can wear you down, and in the end, perhaps some things don’t need to be understood. Isn’t that why we have physicists?

Show Less

LibraryThing member bojnberry

I really enjoyed the conversational tone of this book. It spoke of some pretty heady concepts, but they were laid out in a way that even without a scientific background they were accessible. The diagrams were silly, but were still informative.

LibraryThing member parelle

A good, readable introduction to various tricky topics in Physics. I admit to sleeping through my first semester in college, and this was an excellent refresher on various topics I only vaguely remembered - and, frankly, an easier read than The Universe in a Nutshell, which I still admit to not

understanding. I wasn't a huge fan of the cartoon art, but that's more of a personal preference.

Show Less

LibraryThing member fpagan

Modern physics and cosmology for people who have (only) a high-school education, are averse to math, and need to be constantly entertained with jokey sentences and footnotes. Good subject matter, though.

LibraryThing member Becca_Lausch

The authors explain complex physical phenomena in the context of everyday applications. Book covers quantum mechanics, magnetic forces, gravitational expansion and particle acceleration and briefly touches on the existence of extraterrestrial life. The catchy, conversational tone used distinguishes

the book more so than its success in clarifying highly sophisticated concepts.

Show Less

LibraryThing member amandacb

“A User’s Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty” walks the curious lay reader through the intricacies of physics as it applies to many different situations, some realistic and some completely theoretical and “out there.”

I was

extremely excited to receive this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers; it was on my Amazon.com Wish List and I had planned to purchase it for my birthday, but was lucky enough to snag it through the program. I eagerly checked my mailbox every day and once I received the book, began reading it immediately. Imagine my surprise when I realized this is actually a book one can read anywhere—on the couch, on breaks at work, in the bathtub, in bed, etc. The writing is remarkably easy to understand and flows along quite readily.

At some points, the concepts did go beyond my grasp—for instance, in chapter two, when the authors began discussing light particles and Schrodinger’s cat. However, the book propels the reader along so that if the reader does not fully grasp a concept, it does not matter—the reader can still understand enjoy the book, as I did.

The authors discuss such topics as: special relativity (the speed of light and characteristics of such), quantum “weirdness” (qualities of light particles and quantum mechanics), randomness, the standard model of atoms and particles, time travel (which will make you go “wow”), makeup and characteristics of the universe, the Big Bang, extraterrestrials, and other stuff (dark matter and miscellaneous).

Throughout the text, author-generated sketches are interspersed to inject humor and some concepts; I especially enjoyed the sketches of the fundamental particles. The authors do make an abundance of jokes—there are multiple jokes on every page. I do feel they could have excised some of the jokes and the book would have been just as interesting. Overall, it is an interesting read, especially for someone who took one physics class ten years ago.

Show Less

Fewer