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Loading... The Elegant Universeby Brian Greene
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  neurodrew | Oct 4, 2009 |  I read The Elegant Universe to hopefully increase my knowledge of black holes what I got instead was a review of Newton and Einstein's theory's and the introduction of a new theory, String Theory or as some call it, The Theory of Everything which introduces the possiblity of the existence of 11 dimensions. The book ends with work currently being done at Fermilab and CERN where experiments are being done to collide atoms and possibly simulate the Big Bang. Although the book barely touched upon Black Holes it did introduce new information that further peaked my interest in this sector of science in easy to read for laymen terms. (  ) Carmenere | Aug 26, 2009 | The last frontier of modern physics, the string theory. Greene takes on the burden of explaining it to us mortals, in a clear language. ( ) Ramirez | Jul 18, 2009 | Enlightening but a tough read for dummies like me. (  ) Renzomalo | May 11, 2009 | This is a fantastic book that hits a sweet spot between too much detail and too superficial coverage of the topic. Covering the breadth of modern physics, it does a creditable job of taking an interested layman through to the world of string theory, and allowing us to see that there really is elegance in the universe. (  )2  sirfurboy | Apr 24, 2009 | 
 In the great tradition of physicists writing for the masses, ''The Elegant Universe'' sets a standard that will be hard to beat.
Amazon.com (ISBN 0375708111, Paperback)There is an ill-concealed skeleton in the closet of physics: "As they are currently formulated, general relativity and quantum mechanics cannot both be right." Each is exceedingly accurate in its field: general relativity explains the behavior of the universe at large scales, while quantum mechanics describes the behavior of subatomic particles. Yet the theories collide horribly under extreme conditions such as black holes or times close to the big bang. Brian Greene, a specialist in quantum field theory, believes that the two pillars of physics can be reconciled in superstring theory, a theory of everything.Superstring theory has been called "a part of 21st-century physics that fell by chance into the 20th century." In other words, it isn't all worked out yet. Despite the uncertainties--"string theorists work to find approximate solutions to approximate equations"--Greene gives a tour of string theory solid enough to satisfy the scientifically literate. Though Ed Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study is in many ways the human hero of The Elegant Universe, it is not a human-side-of-physics story. Greene's focus throughout is the science, and he gives the nonspecialist at least an illusion of understanding--or the sense of knowing what it is that you don't know. And that is traditionally the first step on the road to knowledge. --Mary Ellen Curtin (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:09 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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The first chapters were excellent general introductions to quantum theory and relativistic physics, and an explanation of why these two theories conflict at the extremes of energy and size. The rest is a nonmathematical account of string theory, the current favorite approach to putting together quantum physics and relatively. Superstring theory conceives of physical quantities as vibrating "strings" in multidimensional space. It uses very theoretical mathematics, such as 10-dimensional Calabri-Yau space, and became quite incomprehensible without the math (