Digital List Price:	314.21
M.R.P.:	399.00
Kindle Price:	208.00 Save 191.00 (48%)
	inclusive of all taxes includes free wireless delivery via *Amazon Whispernet*
Sold by:	Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings Private Limited

View eBooks cart Available in eBooks cart

Promotions apply when you purchase

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

A Brief History Of Time: From Big Bang To Black Holes by [Stephen Hawking]

Follow the Author

Stephen Hawking

A Brief History Of Time: From Big Bang To Black Holes Kindle Edition

by Stephen Hawking (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

15,988 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Kindle Edition

"Please retry"

₹208.00

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

₹0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

₹1,599.00

Paperback

"Please retry"

₹260.00

₹259.00

Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged, Import

"Please retry"

—

Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries?

These are just some of the questions considered in the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by the world renowned physicist - generally considered to have been one of the world's greatest thinkers.

It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the Big Bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory. To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders.

This new edition includes updates from Stephen Hawking with his latest thoughts about the No Boundary Proposal and offers new information about dark energy, the information paradox, eternal inflation, the microwave background radiation observations, and the discovery of gravitational waves.

It was published in tandem with the app, Stephen Hawking's Pocket Universe.

'This book marries a child's wonder to a genius's intellect. We journey into Hawking's universe while marvelling at his mind.' The Sunday Times

Print length

242 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Transworld Digital
Publication date

10 November 2009
File size

3001 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Product description

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

Our picture of the universe

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!”

Most people would find the picture of our universe as an infinite tower of tortoises rather ridiculous, but why do we think we know better? What do we know about the universe, and how do we know it? Where did the universe come from, and where is it going? Did the universe have a beginning, and if so, what happened before then? What is the nature of time? Will it ever come to an end? Can we go back in time? Recent breakthroughs in physics, made possible in part by fantastic new technologies, suggest answers to some of these longstanding questions. Someday these answers may seem as obvious to us as the earth orbiting the sun–or perhaps as ridiculous as a tower of tortoises. Only time (whatever that may be) will tell.

As long ago as 340 B.C. the Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his book On the Heavens, was able to put forward two good arguments for believing that the earth was a round sphere rather than a flat plate. First, he realized that eclipses of the moon were caused by the earth coming between the sun and the moon. The earth’s shadow on the moon was always round, which would be true only if the earth was spherical. If the earth had been a flat disk, the shadow would have elongated and elliptical, unless the eclipse always occurred at a time when the sun was directly under the center of the disk. Second, the Greeks knew from their travels that the North Star appeared lower in the sky when viewed in the south than it did in more northerly regions. (Since the North Star lies over the North Pole, it appears to be directly above an observer at the North Pole, but to someone looking from the equator, it appears to lie just at the horizon. From the difference in the apparent position of the North Star in Egypt and Greece, Aristotle even quoted an estimate that the distance around the earth was 400,000 stadia. It is not known exactly what length a stadium was, but it may have been about 200 yards, which would make Aristotle’s estimate about twice the currently accepted figure. The Greeks even had a third argument that the earth must be round, for why else does one first see the sails of a ship coming over the horizon, and only later see the hull?

Aristotle thought the earth was stationary and that the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars moved in circular orbits about the earth. He believed this because he felt, for mystical reasons, that the earth was the center of the universe, and that circular motion was the most perfect. This idea was elaborated by Ptolemy in the second century A.D. into a complete cosmological model. The earth stood at the center, surrounded by eight spheres that carried the moon, the sun, the stars, and the five planets known at the time, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (Fig 1.1). The planets themselves moved on smaller circles attached to their respective spheres in order to account for their rather complicated observed paths in the sky. The outermost sphere carried the so-called fixed stars, which always stay in the same positions relative to each other but which rotate together across the sky. What lay beyond the last sphere was never made very clear, but it certainly was not part of mankind’s observable universe.

Ptolemy’s model provided a reasonably accurate system for predicting the positions of heavenly bodies in the sky. But in order to predict these positions correctly, Ptolemy had to make an assumption that the moon followed a path that sometimes brought it twice as close to the earth as at other times. And that meant that the moon ought sometimes to appear twice as big as at other times! Ptolemy recognized this flaw, but nevertheless his model was generally, although not universally, accepted. It was adopted by the Christian church as the picture of the universe that was in accordance with Scripture, for it had the great advantage that it left lots of room outside the sphere of fixed stars for heaven and hell.

A simpler model, however, was proposed in 1514 by a Polish priest, Nicholas Copernicus. (At first, perhaps for fear of being branded a heretic by his church, Copernicus circulated his model anonymously.) His idea was that the sun was stationary at the center and that the earth and the planets moved in circular orbits around the sun. Nearly a century passed before this idea was taken seriously. Then two astronomers–the German, Johannes Kepler, and the Italian, Galileo Galilei–started publicly to support the Copernican theory, despite the fact that the orbits it predicted did not quite match the ones observed. The death blow to the Aristotelian/Ptolemaic theory came in 1609. In that year, Galileo started observing the night sky with a telescope, which had just been invented. When he looked at the planet Jupiter, Galileo found that it was accompanied by several small satellites or moons that orbited around it. This implied that everything did not have to orbit directly around the earth, as Aristotle and Ptolemy had thought. (It was, of course, still possible to believe that the earth was stationary at the center of the universe and that the moons of Jupiter moved on extremely complicated paths around the earth, giving the appearance that they orbited Jupiter. However, Copernicus’s theory was much simpler.) At the same time, Johannes Kepler had modified Copernicus’s theory, suggesting that the planets moved not in circles but in ellipses (an ellipse is an elongated circle). The predictions now finally matched the observations.

As far as Kepler was concerned, elliptical orbits were merely an ad hoc hypothesis, and a rather repugnant one at that, because ellipses were clearly less perfect than circles. Having discovered almost by accident that elliptical orbits fit the observations well, he could not reconcile them with his idea that the planets were made to orbit the sun by magnetic forces. An explanation was provided only much later, in 1687, when Sir Isaac Newton published his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, probably the most important single work ever published in the physical sciences. In it Newton not only put forward a theory of how bodies move in space and time, but he also developed the complicated mathematics needed to analyze those motions. In addition, Newton postulated a law of universal gravitation according to which each body in the universe was attracted toward every other body by a force that was stronger the more massive the bodies and the closer they were to each other. It was this same force that caused objects to fall to the ground. (The story that Newton was inspired by an apple hitting his head is almost certainly apocryphal. All Newton himself ever said was that the idea of gravity came to him as he sat “in a contemplative mood” and “was occasioned by the fall of an apple.”) Newton went on to show that, according to his law, gravity causes the moon to move in an elliptical orbit around the earth and causes the earth and the planets to follow elliptical paths around the sun.

The Copernican model got rid of Ptolemy’s celestial spheres, and with them, the idea that the universe had a natural boundary. Since “fixed stars” did not appear to change their positions apart from a rotation across the sky caused by the earth spinning on its axis, it became natural to suppose that the fixed stars were objects like our sun but very much farther away.

Newton realized that, according to his theory of gravity, the stars should attract each other, so it seemed they could not remain essentially motionless. Would they not all fall together at some point? In a letter in 1691 to Richard Bentley, another leading thinker of his day, Newton argued that his would indeed happen if there were only a finite number of stars distributed over a finite region of space. But he reasoned that if, on the other hand, there were an infinite number of stars, distributed more or less uniformly over infinite space, this would not happen, because there would not be any central point for them to fall to.

This argument is an instance of the pitfalls that you can encounter in talking about infinity. In an infinite universe, every point can be regarded as the center, because every point has an infinite number of stars on each side of it. The correct approach, it was realized only much later, is to consider the finite situation, in which the stars all fall in on each other, and then to ask how things change if one adds more stars roughly uniformly distributed outside this region. According to Newton’s law, the extra stars would make no difference at all to the original ones on average, so the stars would fall in just as fast. We can add as many stars as we like, but they will still always collapse in on themselves. We now know it is impossible to have an infinite static model of the universe in which gravity is always attractive.

It is an interesting reflection on the general climate of thought before the twentieth century that no one had suggested that the universe was expanding or contracting. It was generally accepted that either the universe had existed forever in an unchanging state, or that it had been created at a finite time in the past more or less as we observe it today. In part this may have been due to people’s tendency to believe in eternal truths, as well as the comfort they found in the thought that even though they may grow old and die, the universe is eternal and unchanging.

Even those who realized that Newton’s theory of gravity showed that the universe could not be static did not think to suggest that it might be expanding. Instead, they attempted to modify the theory by making the gravitational force repulsive at very large distances. This did not significantly affect their predictions of the motions of the planets, but it allowed an infinite distribution of stars to remain in equilibrium–with the attractive forces between nearby stars balanced by the repulsive forces from those that were farther away. However, we now believe such an equilibrium would be unstable: if the stars in some region got only slightly nearer each other, the attractive forces between them would become stronger and dominate over the repulsive forces so that the stars would continue to fall toward each other. On the other hand, if the stars got a bit farther away from each other, the repulsive forces would dominate and drive them farther apart.

Another objection to an infinite static universe is normally ascribed to the German philosopher Heinrich Olbers, who wrote about this theory in 1823. In fact, various contemporaries of Newton had raised the problem, and the Olbers article was not even the first to contain plausible arguments against it. It was, however, the first to be widely noted. The difficulty is that in an infinite static universe nearly every line of sight would end on the surface of a star. Thus one would expect that the whole sky would be as bright as the sun, even at night. Olbers’s counterargument was that the light from distant stars would be dimmed by absorption by intervening matter. However, if that happened the intervening matter would eventually heat up until it glowed as brightly as the stars. The only way of avoiding the conclusion that the whole of the night sky should be as bright as the surface of the sun would be to assume that the stars had not been shining forever but had turned on at some finite time in the past. In that case the absorbing matter might not have heated up yet or the light from distant stars might not yet have reached us. And that brings us to the question of what could have caused the stars to have turned on in the first place.

The beginning of the universe had, of course, been discussed long before this. According to a number of early cosmologies and the Jewish/Christian/Muslim tradition, the universe started at a finite, and not very distant, time in the past. One argument for such a beginning was the feeling that it was necessary to have “First Cause” to explain the existence of the universe. (Within the universe, you always explained one event as being caused by some earlier event, but the existence of the universe itself could be explained in this way only if it had some beginning.) Another argument was put forward by St. Augustine in his book The City of God. He pointed out that civilization is progressing and we remember who performed this deed or developed that technique. Thus man, and so also perhaps the universe, could not have been around all that long. St. Augustine accepted a date of about 5000 B.C. for the Creation of the universe according to the book of Genesis. (It is interesting that this is not so far from the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 B.C., which is when archaeologists tell us that civilization really began.)

Aristotle, and most of the other Greek philosophers, on the other hand, did not like the idea of a creation because it smacked too much of divine intervention. They believed, therefore, that the human race and the world around it had existed, and would exist, forever. The ancients had already considered the argument about progress described above, and answered it by saying that there had been periodic floods or other disasters that repeatedly set the human race right back to the beginning of civilization. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From AudioFile

In his narration Michael Jackson changes his rhythm and volume, sometimes laughing with asides, while talking of the Big Bang, negative energy, and the elusive unified field theory. He also demonstrates a facility with a plethora of scientific and mathematical terms. If we can forgive him for pronouncing the "p" in Ptolomy so many times, we find he adds a pleasant vitality to a scientific audiobook. Hawking, an expert on space-time, quantum mechanics, and black holes, is far too smart for most of us to understand, but this abridgment, with the help of the narrator's positive spin, gives an idea of how such a great scientist, long afflicted with Lou Gehrig's disease, thinks and writes. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Amazon.com Review

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 --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and in world-wide acclaim and popularity, with more than 9 million copies in print globally. The original edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe. But the ensuing years have seen extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic world--observations that have confirmed many of Hawking's theoretical predictions in the first edition of his book.

Now a decade later, this edition updates the chapters throughout to document those advances, and also includes an entirely new chapter on Wormholes and Time Travel and a new introduction. It make vividly clear why A Brief History of Time has transformed our view of the universe. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Book Description

The 20th anniversary edition of Stephen Hawking's scientific masterpiece. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

"A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and in world-wide acclaim and popularity, with more than 9 million copies in print globally. The original edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe. But the ensuing years have seen extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic world--observations that have confirmed many of Hawking's theoretical predictions in the first edition of his book.
Now a decade later, this edition updates the chapters throughout to document those advances, and also includes an entirely new chapter on Wormholes and Time Travel and a new introduction. It make vividly clear why "A Brief History of Time has transformed our view of the universe. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

[Hawking] can explain the complexities of cosmological physics with an engaging combination of clarity and wit. . . . His is a brain of extraordinary power. --The New York Review of Books

This book marries a child's wonder to a genius's intellect. We journey into Hawking's universe while marvelling at his mind. --The Sunday Times, (London)

Masterful. --The Wall Street Journal

Charming and lucid . . . [A book of] sunny brilliance. --The New Yorker

Lively and provocative . . . Mr. Hawking clearly possesses a natural teacher's gifts -- easy, good-natured humor and an ability to illustrate highly complex propositions with analogies plucked from daily life. --The New York Times

Even as he sits helpless in his wheelchair, his mind seems to soar ever more brilliantly across the vastness of space and time to unlock the secrets of the universe. --Time --Reviews --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

About the Author

Professor Stephen Hawking, a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, is the pre-eminent theoretical physicist in the world. His book A Brief History of Time was a phenomenal worldwide bestseller. He has twelve honorary degrees and was awarded the CBE and was made a Companion of Honour. He has three children and one grandchild.

Michael Jackson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. He is an award-winning poet, novelist, and anthropologist. Among his many books are Minima Ethnographica: Intersubjectivity and the Anthropological Project; Barawa, and the Ways Birds Fly in the Sky; At Home in the World (published by Duke University Press); Pieces of Music, a novel; and Antipodes, a collection of poetry. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0031RDVMI
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Transworld Digital; 0 edition (10 November 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3001 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 242 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #3,879 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #7 in Astronomy (Kindle Store)
- #29 in Astronomy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
15,988 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Stephen Hawking

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Stephen Hawking's ability to make science understandable and compelling to a lay audience was established with the publication of his first book, A Brief History of Time, which has sold nearly 10 million copies in 40 languages. Hawking has authored or participated in the creation of numerous other popular science books, including The Universe in a Nutshell, A Briefer History of Time, On the Shoulders of Giants, The Illustrated On the Shoulders of Giants, and George's Secret Key to the Universe.

(Stephen William Hawking; Oxford, Reino Unido, 8 de Enero de 1942 - Cambridge, 14 de marzo de 2018) Físico teórico británico. A pesar de sus discapacidades físicas y de las progresivas limitaciones impuestas por la enfermedad degenerativa que padecía, Stephen William Hawking es probablemente el físico más conocido entre el gran público desde los tiempos de Einstein. Luchador y triunfador, a lo largo de toda su vida logró sortear la inmensidad de impedimentos que le planteó el mal de Lou Gehrig, una esclerosis lateral amiotrófica que le aquejaba desde que tenía 20 años. Hawking es, sin duda, un ejemplo particular de vitalidad y resistencia frente al infortunio del destino.

Fue miembro de la Real Sociedad de Londres, de la Academia Pontificia de las Ciencias y de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Estados Unidos. Fue titular de la Cátedra Lucasiana de Matemáticas (Lucasian Chair of Mathematics) de la Universidad de Cambridge desde 1979 hasta su jubilación en 2009. Entre las numerosas distinciones que le han sido concedidas, Hawking ha sido honrado con doce doctorados honoris causa y ha sido galardonado con la Orden del Imperio Británico (grado CBE) en 1982, el Premio Príncipe de Asturias de la Concordia en 1989, la Medalla Copley en 2006, la Medalla de la Libertad en 2009 y el Premio Fundación BBVA Fronteras del Conocimiento en 2015.

Alcanzó éxitos de ventas con sus trabajos divulgativos sobre Ciencia, en los que discute sobre sus propias teorías y la cosmología en general; estos incluyen A Brief History of Time, que estuvo en la lista de best-sellers del The Sunday Times británico durante 237 semanas.

La Editorial Alvi Books le dedicó, como tributo y reconocimiento, este espacio en Amazon en 2016.

Stephen Hawking
11,493
Kindle Edition
in Astronomy & Astrophysics eTextbooks
1 offer from ₹108.96
Stephen Hawking
5,448
Kindle Edition
1 offer from ₹19.00
Stephen Hawking
8,407
Kindle Edition
1 offer from ₹207.10
Juggernaut
3
Kindle Edition
1 offer from ₹52.50
Stephen Hawking
1,248
Kindle Edition
1 offer from ₹324.33
Stephen Hawking
2,414
Kindle Edition
1 offer from ₹297.57

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
4 star		19%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from India

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Dimpy

Without a doubt a masterpiece! 👍

Reviewed in India on 25 October 2018

Verified Purchase

"What did God do before he created the universe? Augustine didn’t reply: He was preparing Hell for people who asked such questions. Instead, he said that time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe."

Stephen Hawking takes us on a journey from the time when the world believed that Earth was the center of the universe and supported on the back of a giant tortoise to our age when we know better. Without the use of any mathematical equation, except the one famous mass energy equivalence relation by Einstein, he has explained the nature of our universe, from the smallest particles which cannot be seen to the biggest entities, the black holes in a simple language.

The manner in which Hawking broke down complex concepts in theoretical physics, along with his adept use of humor, he clearly won over the readers who otherwise might have found themselves intimidated by physics and maths.
I recommend it to all people who are interested in physics and cosmology but hate equations. 😄

232 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sawita

Intriguing read for those who wonder about our universe!

Reviewed in India on 12 January 2019

Verified Purchase

A brief history of time... What a fascinating book! This is probably the first time I read through an entire book where I only understood a fraction of what was explained, due to my limited understanding on the topic. In other circumstances I would have left it incomplete. However with this gem, it made me wonder about various principles I had heard about in high school, and search for some cool videos online explaining them in an easy to understand language.

If you have wondered about the big bang, black holes, elementary particles, general relativity, quantum mechanics, space and time, or the laws of the universe, this book is for you!

This book reminds one of how beautiful, fascinating and intriguing our universe is! I don't think the author could have simplified things any further. I rate the book a 5-star for keeping me engaged, for making me explore concepts I wouldn't have otherwise, and for reminding me of the wonders of the universe.

56 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Must buy this book.Best book that is ever read by me.

Reviewed in India on 24 April 2017

Verified Purchase

A very good book.This book is like a tree.You can climb up that tree and when you reach the top you have a very clear view of everything . But climbing the tree up is somewhat difficult while you are still on the trunk.The first two chapters form this "trunk" and the rest are branches.If you suceed in climbing up the trunk then nobody can stop you from reaching the top.
BTW I bought it in INR 168 ; )

191 people found this helpful

Helpful

Pratap Bhattacharyya

About the Product

Reviewed in India on 19 August 2017

Verified Purchase

There is no comparison of this book from the beaning of astronomy till the modern world and thoughts of future.
The Grate Stephen Hawkings is the write which makes the book more legendary.
Grate to read the language is not much difficult to understand .
Nearly All my Dough of the space science has been cleared by this book.

30 people found this helpful

Helpful

Yasir ty

Great Book About Time

Reviewed in India on 4 December 2019

Verified Purchase

A brief history of time... What a fascinating book! This is probably the first time I read through an entire book where I only understood a fraction of what was explained, due to my limited understanding on the topic. In other circumstances I would have left it incomplete. However with this gem, it made me wonder about various principles I had heard about in high school, and search for some cool videos online explaining them in an easy to understand language.

If you have wondered about the big bang, black holes, elementary particles, general relativity, quantum mechanics, space and time, or the laws of the universe, this book is for you!

This book reminds one of how beautiful, fascinating and intriguing our universe is! I don't think the author could have simplified things any further. I rate the book a 5-star for keeping me engaged, for making me explore concepts I wouldn't have otherwise, and for reminding me of the wonders of the universe.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ravi Garlay

The best book for a Physics Lover

Reviewed in India on 19 September 2018

Verified Purchase

This book is really a proof that why was Stephen Hawking One of the best Physicist after Albert Einstien ...
I mean it explains the high level concepts in a way that anyone can easily understand ..

You can easily understand the complexity of high level concepts in Easiest way..
If you're a at least +1 student and a physics lover ...This one is for you..
And it adds more interest If you are interested in astrophysics ...This book is a MUST...
And the hardest thing about the book is that you can't put it down...once you start reading it...it makes you understand and inspires you to think,which I find very amazing

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Piyush Bilgaiyan

A gift to all the curious minds.

Reviewed in India on 22 July 2020

Verified Purchase

A must read to all the curious minds.
SOMETHING NO ONE ELSE WILL TELL YOU IS-
It just not only deals with open enden questions that haunt our minds😁. But also explores scientific temprament.
This is one of few books that accept in writing that "all i belive might be just a fantasy and string theory will be overthrown by future generations".
It shows us a mirror how little we know.
The problem faced by modern day philosophers is also been touched.
My personal favourite chapter is the "arrow of time". Because it teaches us how to make judgements and later how to discard them.
P.S. none of deep knowledge is required in order to appreciate this book.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

RAJIV

Highly Disappointed With the Quality

Reviewed in India on 12 July 2022

Verified Purchase

Highly Disappointed With the Quality of the book from print as well as from page quality side.
There is no genuineness.
It is a cheap street side print.
There is no publication sticker as well.

Anybody living in metropolitan, can buy it in 100/- from any street side vendor.

Seller must respect the reputation of this book.
Surprised to see that how Amazon is allowing such quality to sell on its platform.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Martin Jones

A Brief History Of My Efforts To Understand Physics

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 July 2018

Verified Purchase

Stephen Hawking summarises the difficulty of his book right at the end. Science has become ever more complex and specialised. All the grand, universal theories of A Brief History are actually the work of experts who only have time to understand their small patch. This breaking down of knowledge into pieces has been going on for centuries, gathering pace after 1776 when, in his Wealth Of Nations, Adam Smith described the future of industry as the division of labour. Then in 1988 Stephen Hawking comes along and has a go at explaining the whole of modern physics, with all its specialised fields and competing experts, to a general reader.

Perhaps part of A Brief History Of Time’s remarkable success lies in a nostalgic reaction. People used to live in houses with one big room. Go to Anne Hathaway’s house in Stratford and you’ll see how a sixteenth century hall was split into the rooms of later centuries. Perhaps, in a figurative sense, we look into a tiny room in the attic - where the physicist has a study - and yearn to return to that big hall where everyone is in it together.

So how did Stephen Hawking do? I have to admit to reading general books on physics that I have found much easier and more compelling - Superforce for example, by Paul Davies, an accomplished physicist in his own right. This is a book I read back in the 1980s after failing, on that occasion, to get to the end of A Brief History. But Stephen Hawking was one of the most famous physicists of modern times, isolated both by his esoteric field of expertise and his illness. Looking into the study of such a man increases the frisson.

Overall I would say I caught the gist of at least some of A Brief History, without feeling I gained a deep knowledge of anything. Maybe that is an inevitable part of what us general readers might call the Dilettante Principle, our equivalent of the Uncertainty Principle. You can either know a little about a lot, or a lot about a little, but not both.

I think if I’m honest I was more interested in the book not so much for what was in it - which I often had a tough time following - but for what it represents about the times we live in, where people know more and more about smaller and smaller areas. A lot of good books are like that. They catch a moment.

74 people found this helpful

E Griffith

A bit too much for me!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2021

Verified Purchase

I’d heard a lot about this book. It was certainly a best seller for its time. Also it’s a subject I’m interested in. But.....I’m not particularly bright but I don’t think I’m too slow on the uptake (I’ve two degrees for what they’re worth).....but this book lost me completely. Hawking is a genius, no doubt. But he’s on a different planet to me. A different galaxy or universe even. It’s described as being accessible to “a layman”....whatever that is.....an astrophysicist professor? I admit he lost me completely. I read it all but know it swept over my head in a cloud of cosmic dust in the eons of time going backwards and forwards in time through wormholes encapsulated by gravity and disappearing into black holes at (just below) the speed of light. I gave it an extra star for the occasional bit of humour, obviously included as a nod towards thickos like me. I’m glad I read it though. I know where I stand in the Universe and The Big Bang. Pretty near the bottom of the class.

25 people found this helpful

Betseylee

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 April 2018

Verified Purchase

(This is the updated version). What a book, I enjoyed it from beginning to end, reading only a chapter a day, so I didn't get too bogged down and had time to digest it. Nevertheless, it is a lot to take on board. Being a sci-fi nut, a lot of the theory and concepts, in principle, we're known to me but still, I am only a lowly Human Being, not a scientist! I loved the sense of humour and little asides, although I am a little perplexed by the notion that if time flowed backwards, you could see the result of a race and then place a bet on it, knowing the result. Surely you are still travelling time in the wrong direction to collect your winnings, or alternatively, everyone would be rich! Screws my brain up just trying think about it. Anyway, a jolly good book which I shall certainly read again.

28 people found this helpful

H MCGAHAN

Shallow and superficial toe-dip into fortune-telling, football punditry and cupcakes.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 December 2020

Verified Purchase

One step up from a graphic novel, Stevie deals out the usual cards from a badly shuffled deck inviting people to stick, twist or hit on topics usually reserved for coffee tables, seducing trainee barristers or applying for a job on Newsnight. Was it really necessary to have so many swear words? And as for those salacious margin drawings, echoing The Books of Kells via Fritz the Cat??? It's oibvious Stevie enjoyed himself unfurling his cloak of knowledge for the transient footfall of the TK Maxxers over the stagnant puddle of social media fatigue but, hey there Hawkings, what about the Grammar School level, eh?

5 people found this helpful

Oliver

Fantastic Book

Reviewed in Canada on 9 May 2020

Verified Purchase

Honestly, I didn't even read the book, nor do I plan to. I just bought it to put on my bookshelf so that when I can guests come over, they think I'm intelligent and well read. I tried getting past the first few pages but my eyes just glazed over and I got so tired that I took a nap. The cover is nice though so I'm pretty sure if you're into this kind of stuff it'll be good.

AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services	Audible Download Audio Books	DPReview Digital Photography	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Prime Now 2-Hour Delivery on Everyday Items	Amazon Prime Music 90 million songs, ad-free Over 15 million podcast episodes

Buy for others

Buying and sending Kindle eBooks to others

Follow the Author

A Brief History Of Time: From Big Bang To Black Holes Kindle Edition

Product description

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile

Amazon.com Review

From the Inside Flap

Book Description

From the Back Cover

Review

About the Author

Product details

About the author

Stephen Hawking

Customers who read this book also read

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from India

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries