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277 reviews for:
El universo elegante: Supercuerdas, dimensiones ocultas y la búsqueda de una teoría final
Brian Greene
4.04 AVERAGE
277 reviews for:
El universo elegante: Supercuerdas, dimensiones ocultas y la búsqueda de una teoría final
Brian Greene
4.04 AVERAGE
I had a great high school physics teacher. His analogies and jokes always made the underlying concepts vivid and enhanced my understanding (though, when it can time to solve problems on my own, I invariably ended up dividing by zero or some other way getting things wrong, which is probably why I read popular science books, and don't work in a lab somewhere).
This book is like that great high school physics teacher. I think the chapters explicating relativity and quantum mechanics made those ideas much, much more clear to me than others I have read. They are almost worth publishing on their own.
That said, the actual accounts of string theory were much tougher to follow, and much less clearly applied to the problem they are presented as a solution to - The unification of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Overall though, really a well-written, elucidating work of popular science.
This book is like that great high school physics teacher. I think the chapters explicating relativity and quantum mechanics made those ideas much, much more clear to me than others I have read. They are almost worth publishing on their own.
That said, the actual accounts of string theory were much tougher to follow, and much less clearly applied to the problem they are presented as a solution to - The unification of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Overall though, really a well-written, elucidating work of popular science.
An excellent book about string theory for those who are interested in a high level technical discussion. No deep mathematics or physics knowledge is needed to read this. String theory is an attempt to better understand the micro-universe, and provides a suggestion for an elemental particle whose vibrations define all others.
This will remain a pure theory for a while, as it will take major technical advances to figure out how to test the theory. Until then, philosophical discussions can happen about whether or not it's right, but until we can test it or someone thinks of a very different theory, it's one still being worked on as, pretty much, the only explanation at this point.
This will remain a pure theory for a while, as it will take major technical advances to figure out how to test the theory. Until then, philosophical discussions can happen about whether or not it's right, but until we can test it or someone thinks of a very different theory, it's one still being worked on as, pretty much, the only explanation at this point.
This was fun to listen to while crocheting. Some of the introductory chapters were too long, like "I get it, let's move along," but once he got into the meat of it, I had a hard time following it. Some of what I did understand of it made me feel dizzy. I may have reached the limit of what I'm going to be able to learn about physics from popular science writings. Time to watch a free lecture series I guess. Why must I be so curious about the cosmos? Why do I keep itching to know what is still beyond our brightest minds?
informative
slow-paced
informative
Not bad, but probably the most difficult book I have ever read. I think I understood about 10% of it.
Not a fan of theoretical physics it seems. Was a fun read, get a bit of insight into what exactly Superstring Theory is. Basically posits that the entire universe is made up of infintesimally tiny strings that vibrate. Instead of 4 dimensions (X, Y, Z, and Time) there are many more that aren't observed because they exist in such a tiny space. I have to say I was NOT a fan of the analogies used throughout the book. I felt like they were extremely forced although that might just be due to the inherently complicated material being covered.
Quantum Mechanics and Relativity challenged our intuitive view of the world and forced us to look at things from an entirely new perspective. I did not feel the same way about String Theory. It feels far less tangible than even QM and there are few takeaways
Quantum Mechanics and Relativity challenged our intuitive view of the world and forced us to look at things from an entirely new perspective. I did not feel the same way about String Theory. It feels far less tangible than even QM and there are few takeaways
At one point senior year Andrew Portwood and I were 'stumbling' across the internet when we came upon the PBS program "The Elegant Universe."
Without initially intending to do so, we managed to pass the subsequent 3 hours learning about depths of our own universe that we had never before considered. This new information that we had just acquired seemed too fascinating and important to have not been recognized by us before than! Cosmic slapping of multiple dimensions? A world governed by laws of probability rather than certainty? This was too good to be true!
Passing this book on display in the local B&N I had to grab it off the shelf! It is by no means easy to get through and not everything is as simply laid out as in the PBS program however Brian Greene really does shed a beautiful light on the elegant universe that we live in!
I'm slowly making my through it. . .not soon to be completed.
**6/30/2009 UPDATE** I steered away from this book after devouring the first half that acted primarily as an introduction to string theory. From there things started to get a little too strung out for me and I put it on hold while diving into another of other reads. Finally, running low on options, I've decided to return to this epic expose to fight my through it, if only to send it back to my brother Jay who is soon headed off to college to study physics. I can't say I'm absorbing much at this point but it still is an interesting read as each paragraph seems to bring up new theoretical concepts to sit and ponder!
**7/6/2009** Well, I did it. As I said before, I'm not entirely sure why I forced myself to push through to the end except for the fact that I'm running dangerously low on reading material. The latter chapters really did just blow over me but I found the late chapter on black holes to be really interesting. The concluding two chapters are also worth reading as they try to bring everything together and offer prospects for future research and discuss the possible implications of string theory.
This book would be great for anyone with the time and interest to really absorb it. Otherwise, the first few chapters make for an exciting read for anyone who has a decent background in physics and an ability to (at least try and) grasp some heavy theoretical concepts.
Hopefully my younger brother Jay, off to college in the fall, will be able to do and make more of it than I was. If you're really interested in the subject, I'd just stick to the PBS program which was in fact elegantly done!
Without initially intending to do so, we managed to pass the subsequent 3 hours learning about depths of our own universe that we had never before considered. This new information that we had just acquired seemed too fascinating and important to have not been recognized by us before than! Cosmic slapping of multiple dimensions? A world governed by laws of probability rather than certainty? This was too good to be true!
Passing this book on display in the local B&N I had to grab it off the shelf! It is by no means easy to get through and not everything is as simply laid out as in the PBS program however Brian Greene really does shed a beautiful light on the elegant universe that we live in!
I'm slowly making my through it. . .not soon to be completed.
**6/30/2009 UPDATE** I steered away from this book after devouring the first half that acted primarily as an introduction to string theory. From there things started to get a little too strung out for me and I put it on hold while diving into another of other reads. Finally, running low on options, I've decided to return to this epic expose to fight my through it, if only to send it back to my brother Jay who is soon headed off to college to study physics. I can't say I'm absorbing much at this point but it still is an interesting read as each paragraph seems to bring up new theoretical concepts to sit and ponder!
**7/6/2009** Well, I did it. As I said before, I'm not entirely sure why I forced myself to push through to the end except for the fact that I'm running dangerously low on reading material. The latter chapters really did just blow over me but I found the late chapter on black holes to be really interesting. The concluding two chapters are also worth reading as they try to bring everything together and offer prospects for future research and discuss the possible implications of string theory.
This book would be great for anyone with the time and interest to really absorb it. Otherwise, the first few chapters make for an exciting read for anyone who has a decent background in physics and an ability to (at least try and) grasp some heavy theoretical concepts.
Hopefully my younger brother Jay, off to college in the fall, will be able to do and make more of it than I was. If you're really interested in the subject, I'd just stick to the PBS program which was in fact elegantly done!
informative
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced