The Big Bang Simon Singh Pdf

Posted on 03.09.2019 by admin

Correction Appended

The Big Bang Simon Singh Pdf
Big Bang Pdf

'Big Bang' 'The Origin of the Universe' By Simon Singh Illustrated. 532 pages. 4th Estate/HarperCollins. $27.95.

Big Bang: The Book. With a cosmic yardstick for measuring the distance to the galaxies, Edwin Hubble made a remarkable discovery. Although born an American, Hubble had fallen for the charms of the English aristocracy and groomed himself into the quintessential English gentleman while studying in Oxford.

It is hard to imagine a grander, more thrilling story than the one Simon Singh tells in 'Big Bang.' His fast-paced history of the Big Bang theory encompasses all of recorded human history, from the first attempts to measure Earth and the stars to the discovery of quasars and dark matter. It moves, smoothly and rapidly, from the Greeks to Copernicus and then to Einstein and the rest of the 20th-century theorists whom Mr. Singh calls the 'mavericks of the cosmos.' It is an interplanetary voyage that transports the reader, in space and time, from the cramped confines of the Ptolemaic system to the current expanding universe, created in an explosion some 10 billion to 20 billion years ago, with distances measured in billions of light years. 'The Big Bang' is, quite literally, cosmic.

Mr. Singh, the author of 'The Code Book' and 'Fermat's Enigma,' organizes this hugely entertaining book as an undergraduate college course. Each chapter covers key scientific concepts and their discoverers along the evolutionary trail leading to the Big Bang. Readers who have forgotten the workings of the atom, or who never quite understood the significance of red shifts, will make their acquaintance again and see them clearly. Mr. Singh uses illustrations and diagrams at every turn to illustrate the scientific ideas under discussion. Like a good lecturer, he recapitulates when the chains of reasoning become hard to follow, and at the end of every chapter he appends handwritten notes, with little doodlings, outlining the main points. There's a glossary and a reading list for further study at the end, too.

There is no way to fail this course. Mr. Singh, who tips his hat to Carl Sagan on the acknowledgments page, is brilliant not only at translating difficult scientific ideas for the general reader but also at transmitting his enthusiasm for the subject. The Big Bang, in his hands, is a procession of scientific breakthroughs, but actual human beings think the thoughts, and their passions, both grand and petty, animate the narrative.

One thing becomes abundantly clear. Scientists do not appreciate having their theories disproved. When Georges Lemaître, a Jesuit priest and cosmologist, approached Albert Einstein in 1927 and proposed his theory that the universe was not static but expanding, Einstein brushed him off. 'Your calculations are correct, but your physics is abominable,' he said. Lemaître was devastated, although Einstein later came around. When Martin Ryle, a British radio astronomer, was presented with a photograph disproving his theory that celestial radio waves emanated from stars, not galaxies, he threw himself face down on a couch, in full view of his colleagues at a conference, and burst into tears. Then he got up, dusted himself off and began plotting revenge.

Fred Hoyle, the British astronomer who came up with the name 'Big Bang' as a sneer, could never let go of his own steady-state theory, first developed in the 1940's. It posited a universe that as it expanded constantly created matter to fill in the gaps between receding galaxies, thus assuring that the overall density of the universe remained constant. In his view, the universe seemed to develop but was at the same time unchanging, constant and eternal.

Like the Ptolemaic system, with planets revolving around Earth in perfect circles, Hoyle's steady-state model died hard, partly because of its elegance. Robert Wilson, an American scientist who helped drive one of the final nails in the coffin of the steady-state theory when he and Arno Penzias picked up microwave radiation emanating from the era just after the Big Bang, bade farewell to the steady-state universe sadly. 'I very much liked the steady-state universe,' he admitted. 'Philosophically, I still sort of like it.'

'Big Bang' is a happy book. More than the history of a single theory, it is an argument for the scientific method and for the illuminating power of human reason. Again and again, in this forward march, scientists overcome seemingly insoluble problems, sometimes by technology, but just as often not. Mr. Singh revels in the technological advances that put high-powered telescopes, radio dishes and satellites at the service of science, but he shows equal enthusiasm for the unaided deductions of ancient Greeks like Eratosthenes, who calculated the circumference of the earth using nothing more than a stick.

From Eratosthenes to Einstein, as Mr. Singh tells it, is not such a big leap. It's a big series of small leaps, a golden chain of reasoning that links all the cosmic travelers in his sweeping drama. Telescopes become bigger and equations more complex, but the fundamental drive remains the same, a burning curiosity that inspires and torments. Mr. Singh has a knack for seizing on the simple principles behind a complicated theory and for humble examples that cut the universe down to size.

The Big Bang, at first glance, seems incomprehensibly big and dauntingly abstract. But turn on a good FM radio, twiddle the dial and tune it in. There, in the intervals between stations, you hear a shushing sound. A tiny part of that sound is caused by radiation emitted just after the universe came into being , primordial light waves that stretched with the expansion of the universe and became transformed into radio waves. The Big Bang was way back then, but it's also here and now, and never more so than in Mr. Singh's stirring tale of scientific adventure.

Books of the Times 'Big Bang' Correction: February 23, 2005, Wednesday The Books of The Times review on Feb. 2, about 'Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe' by Simon Singh, referred incorrectly to Georges Lemaître, a scientist who theorized that the universe is expanding. He was a diocesan or secular priest, one who does not belong to a religious order; he was not a Jesuit.

Category:Natural History
The author of the book:Dr. Simon Singh
Format files: PDF, EPUB
The size of the: 5.20 MB
Language: English
ISBN-13: 9780007152520
Edition: HarperPerennial
Date of issue: 4 July 2005

Description of the book 'Big Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About it':

The bestselling author of Fermat's Last Theorem and The Code Book tells the story of the brilliant minds that deciphered the mysteries of the Big Bang. A fascinating exploration of the ultimate question: how was our universe created? Albert Einstein once said: 'The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.' Simon Singh believes geniuses like Einstein are not the only people able to grasp the physics that govern the universe. We all can. As well as explaining what the Big Bang theory actually is and why cosmologists believe it is an accurate description of the origins of PDF the universe, this book is also the fascinating story of the scientists who fought against the established idea of an eternal and unchanging universe. Simon Singh, renowned for making difficult ideas much less daunting than they first seem, is the perfect guide for this journey. Everybody has heard of the Big Bang Theory. But how many of us can actually claim to understand it? With characteristic clarity and a narrative peppered with anecdotes and personal histories of those who have struggled to understand creation, Simon Singh has written the story of the most important theory ever ePub.

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Dr. Simon Singh

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