Brief Answers to the Big Questions in Science and Inquiry

May 07, 2019 Charlene rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, mindgasms, physics, space

鈥婭t took a long time for me to get through this book, not because it was difficult (Hawking always makes the most complex processes in the universe relatively simple) and not because it was dry or boring (Hawking is a truly superior writer who manages to relate to his audience and share with them his sense of awe about his personal life and life of the universe that surrounds us. I could not get through this book because I love Stephen Hawking, more than I can say. I was obsessed with his area t 鈥婭t took a long time for me to get through this book, not because it was difficult (Hawking always makes the most complex processes in the universe relatively simple) and not because it was dry or boring (Hawking is a truly superior writer who manages to relate to his audience and share with them his sense of awe about his personal life and life of the universe that surrounds us. I could not get through this book because I love Stephen Hawking, more than I can say. I was obsessed with his area theorem (which is what initially drew me to his work) and then I loved him all the more each time I read something he wrote. It did not matter that I did not know him personally. His death made me feel as if I had lost a friend and a favorite teacher. I surprised myself by how many times I cried while reading this book. It was just too painful to keep listening to his words, which remained her with us, even though he was gone.

It didn't help that Hawking wrote about death quite a bit throughout the book. All of his insights were invaluable, but it was so sad to read his thoughts on death so soon after his actual death.

This book, like his others, was a must read if you are a fan of physics. This short, very readable book of essays and answers covers topics including:

Should we travel to space and colonize space?

Should we develop AI

鈥媁hat are black holes; how do they work; what do we know and not know about them? (This is, without question, my favorite part of the book. No one writes about black holes like Hawking does. What a gifted writer!!!!!)

What is escape velocity?

How are particles and antiparticles made? (He has explained this many times, but this really did seem like the simplest, most concise explanation i have read from him.)

What was his long career like, especially since he had so many challenges?

Do we live in a predictable universe? (Exceptionally wonderful history of Laplacian determinism, which was replaced by chaos and quantum physics. Very simple explanation of Max Plank's work on packets of radiation- glorious writing, very simplified for the non-physicist. )

What is quantum physics? (Such short answers, and yet, he seems to cover more ground and provide more complete answers than many authors who write much longer books.)

Simple but eloquent explanation of the uncertainty principle. (Take home point was how Max Plank and Heisenberg challenged the idea of a deterministic universe).

Can we predict everything about our future? (In theory the laws of physics allow us to do so, but the equations are far too complex.) ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Mar 01, 2019 Jimmy rated it really liked it

Shelves: science

Here is a passage that I enjoyed:

"The first discussion of black holes was in 1783, by a Cambridge man, John Michell. His argument ran as follows. If one fires a particle, such as a cannon ball, vertically upwards, it will be slowed down by gravity. Eventually the particle will stop moving upwards, and will fall back. However, if the initial upwards velocity were greater than some critical value, called the escape velocity, gravity would never be strong enough to stop the particle, and it would ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 30, 2018 Hollis Williams rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, essays

It's a nice collection of essays, although as usual with Hawking there are some bizarre historical gaffes: he insists on taking yet another swipe at Isaac Newton by trying to suggest that it was Robert Hooke who 'discovered' gravitation obeying the inverse square law and that Newton merely 'elaborated' on Hooke's discovery.
...more

1 like · Like · see review