Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." --Therese Littleton
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Plenty of insight
Customer Rating:
As a computer programmer without any secondary/post-secondary physics knowledge, I was able to easily grasp the concepts presented. Perfect book for the physics curious.
The best book for any relevant physics assignment
Customer Rating:
Boone Parkinson Extra Credit- Book Review A Brief History of Time This book was written by the world renowned physicist Steven Hawking. I give it a rating of about a four out of five stars. I say that because Hawking takes a subject that is extremely complicated and impossibly hard for people to understand. He has studied years to understand these theories. In a spirit to help others understand, he takes these concepts and "dumbs" them down a bit to help the general reader to understand the material. He talks about concepts of the universe such as universe expansion, the way quantum mechanics relate to large scale physics, how black holes relate to the beginning of the universe, and what the universe might have looked like at the big bang and the moment following it. The strengths of the book are found in the way that Hawking goes about explaining the theories of the universe. He takes complicated matters, explains them simply, and then tries to apply it to a simple example that is very easy to visualize. He does a good job explaining the various ways that the universe existed at the begging of time. After he has explained the theory, I.E. the no boundary proposal, you are left to form some of your own opinions. One of the critiques of the book goes off of the same manner of teaching the reader about these concepts. Throughout the book, Hawking will then refer back to the theory that he explained in earlier chapters, but say them more complicated ways. The later chapters become a lot harder to grasp due to this writing style. Overall, I enjoyed the book, and found it interesting to read. It was neat to see how the universe could have once all existed together. Hawking makes a very compelling argument on the existence of these things without there being much observable evidence. This book is not a book that I would ever read for "fun", but I would definitely recommend it for any sort of physics assignment.
mike reviews steph hawking
Customer Rating:
The book was a relatively easy read: the style of writing was very fluid and easy to read, however many of the concepts Hawking presented were very difficult for me to understand and follow (and I watch Discovery channel a lot, even episodes on the very subjects Hawking presented in his book!)
brief History of Time
Customer Rating:
This book was touted as being written for those of us with limited knowledge of physics and astrophysics. Perhaps it is and my knowledge is just too limited. I had a serious problem following Dr Hawking.
Surprised!
Customer Rating:
I thought since this book was written by stephen hawking, one must encounter material that is too deep and overwhelm sooner or later, and ultimately give up reading which i hate. i hate starting a book not able to finish it, but this book is amazing and entertaining, it's like watching a battlestar galatica episode or some scifi movie, only what's in this book actually is based on classic and modern scientific theories. i'm now 3/4 through the book, it just keeps getting better, i need to say this is after catcher in the rye, my second favourite book to read. i'm not a scientist, but i like to think about things and how they work, and this suits me well. and I'm going to reread it after i'm done with it the first time, since a lot of the basic theorums and principles acutally take more than one session to digest. all in all, it's a great book, makes me want to go back to school, haha.
Select button not working? 
