Labyrinth of Time

Introducing the Universe. Modern physics has revealed the universe as a much stranger place than we could have imagined. The puzzle at the centre of our knowledge of the universe is time. Michael Lockwood takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the nature of things.

Michael Lockwood's book...is a model of balance and clarity....Lockwood's style is clear and straightforward

Auteur

Michael Lockwood is a Fellow of Green College, at Oxford University, where he has taught philosophy for many years. His books include the highly acclaimed Mind, Brain, and the Quantum.

Texte du rabat

Modern physics has revealed a universe that is a much stranger place than we could have imagined, filled with black holes and dark matter and parallel lines meeting in space. And the puzzle at the center of our present understanding of the universe is time.

Résumé
Modern physics has revealed the universe as a much stranger place than we could have imagined. The puzzle at the centre of our knowledge of the universe is time. Michael Lockwood takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the nature of things. He investigates philosophical questions about past, present, and future, our experience of time, and the possibility of time travel. And he provides the most careful, lively, and up-to-date introduction to the physics of time and the structure of the universe. He guides us step by step through relativity theory and quantum physics, introducing and explaining the ground-breaking ideas of Newton and Boltzmann, Einstein and Schroedinger, Penrose and Hawking. We zoom in on the behaviour of molecules and atoms, and pull back to survey the expansion of the universe. We learn about entropy and gravity, black holes and wormholes, about how it all began and where we are all headed. Lockwood's aim is not just to boggle the mind but to lead us towards an understanding of the science and philosophy. Things will never seem the same again after a voyage through The Labyrinth of Time.

Contenu

• 1: Two Concepts of Time

• 2: Time and Space: a Marriage is Arranged

• 3: Taking Space-Time Seriously

• 4: From Flat to Curved Space-Time

• 5: Weaving the Cosmic Tapestry

• 6: Closed Timelike Curves: Science Fact or Science Fiction?

• 7: Classical Time Travel: the Toils of Paradox

• 8: Hamilton's Legacy: Physical Systems and their State Spaces

• 9: Time Asymmetry and the Second Law

• 10: Entropy, Electrodynamics and the Role of Gravity

• 11: 'Drawn Through Life Backwards'

• 12: The Unyielding Past

• 13: The Emergence of Order

• 14: From Quantum Leaps to Schrodinger's Cat

• 15: Schrodinger's Time Traveller

• 16: Space, Time, and Quantum Gravity: Physics at the Frontier

• 17: The Time of Our Lives

• 18: Epilogue