Product Description

What is time? The 5th-century philosopher St Augustine famously said that he knew what time was, so long as no one asked him. Introducing Time tackles this question and dares to go where Augustine would not. It traces the history of time from Augustine's suggestion that there is no time, to the flowing time of Newton, the conventional time of Poincare, the static time of Einstein, and then back, full circle to the idea that there is no time in quantum gravity. Along the way, many puzzling questions are raised. For instance, is time a fourth dimension similar to space or does it 'flow' in some sense? And if it flows, does it make sense to say how fast? Does the future exist? Is time travel possible? Why does time seem to pass in only one direction? These questions and others are among the deepest and most subtle that one can ask, but this book presents them - many for the first time - in an easily accessible, lucid and engaging manner.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #243418 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

Not for the Scientist!
This book is OK as long as you are not a physicist or wish to find out about `time' from the point of view of a scientist. This is not meant as a criticism, purely as a fact. For such a book, the discussion should be done by a physicist, not a philosopher - let's not get bogged down with philosophy and `truth' in physics.

Basically, the book spends most of its time talking about the human perception of time and how we have described or mis-described this idea in various areas of the media. There is way too much space used to discuss the paradoxes which are basically associated with time travel into the past and it spends very little of its `time' actually discussing the scientific aspects of time. There are various comments in the text which are used to describe problems with the history of time but they are so loosely defined that again, for scientists (and in particular, physicists), they become irritating. For example, the difference between tensed and tenseless time is explains but then when problems are discussed (like McTaggart's Argument on pages 46-47, the descriptions are poorly described and so, the problems easily ignored).

The two main attempts are through relativity and the concept of entropy. When discussing Relativity the book tries to discuss `frames of reference' and `simultaneity' but the descriptions are very poorly described - you would be much better reading the first half of the Elegant Universe - ignored the last 40% - the discussion of string theory itself is very lose.

Spacetime is very poorly described and the possible solutions to Einstein's equation of General Relativity are discussed for a universe which does not have the cosmological principle as its basis and are very questionable. The three obvious solutions for open and closed spacetime are largely ignored - with the significance to time poorly explained. Page 90 starts by discussing the reasons why time dilation works but fails to explain this at all!

The discussion of entropy is basic and very unclear. Further, the text discusses the concept by using an example of the dead rising - an extremely poorly chosen example!

For general reading with a twist of the sensational its ok, but for a scientific viewpoint, there are much better books to read.

TIME REVEALS ALL
Excellent!!!Easy and entertaining to read!!!Fully illustrated in comic like fashion (black & white) it helps to unravel and understand the concept of TIME.It begins with a tour of the definition of TIME by history's most famous scientists to modern day concept of the possiblity of TIME TRAVEL.Although it trys hard to remain as lay man in approach as possible,in the last chapters it becomes a more complicated subject when faced with theories which are basically impossible to simplify.
All in all an interesting and fresh approach to a subject which intrigues many but is read by few because of its scientific jargon.At last a book one can understand and fully enjoy.

Informative and Readable
Introducing Time presents you with the questions that have perplexed human beings for centuries - Is time merely in the head? When does time end and is time travel possible?

Craig Callender and Ralph Edney attempt to tackle these questions (and more) in a readable and exciting look at the science and history of time.
It begins with the 5th century philosopher Augustine of Hippo's question "What is time?" and then takes us on a tour of time hypotheses up until Stephen Hawking's theories in the 21st century.

The book covers everything from time keeping devices and biological clocks to the ideas of Newtonian time, the fourth dimension, space-time, Einstein's relativity, wormholes, the law of entropy and statistical mechanics.

Along the way, the authors discuss what might happen if we were to travel back in time and kill our younger selves - would we still exist, or would we vanish? Could we stop Abraham Lincoln's murder or assassinate Hitler? What would happen if time went into reverse, and is that even possible?

The authors also make mention of sci-fi films and books such as the Terminator, Back to the Future and Philip K. Dick's Counter-Clock World, where they discuss if the plots of these stories are logically possible.

If you have ever wondered about things like these, then this book will present you with the most up to date ideas on these topics within the scientific community. Black and white cartoons and drawings illustrate every page, which makes these topics easily digestible.

This is probably the most accessible book on this subject for the layman. It presents fascinating, mind boggling and often paradoxical ideas such as a 'never ending finite space' and the idea that the universe sprang into existence 5 seconds ago in a way that anyone could understand.

A terrific book, and one of the best in the 'Introducing' series. Thoroughly recommended!