timanning

This is ridiculous, I finished it in less than a day! Yes, it's that interesting and overwhelming, no matter if you've read the earlier version of this book - A Brief History of Time, or how many times you've watched Stephen Hawking's popular series on BBC. This is Stephen Hawking’s way of describing gravitational attraction of composite bodies. And you recognize good old Stephen Hawking humour when he introduces Isaac Newton by stating that "Isaac Newton was not a pleasant man." A Briefer History of Time is much simpler than its parent. It's a tiny bit shorter, more condensed, with more accessible images than those diagrams in the earlier version. On the contrary, it contains more modern theories that weren't much developed back in the 80s. There's a chapter devoted to the string theory. Correct me if I'm wrong but there was nothing about string theory in A Brief History of Time (maybe only a slight mention but nothing more). In general I'd say this is like a children's book compared to the 1987 version, so if you're not really a science person I'd recommend to read only this one (I liked the detailed discussion of Friedmann's 3 models of the universe in the first edition, as well as singularities and possibilities of time travel). PS. I don't know why but quantum mechanics and the string theory still give me the chills (comparable to a solid chill a good Stephen King horror book would give me. I'm doing it again, aren't I?)

2022-11-14 17:17