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Black Holes & Time Warps
by Kip S. Thorne 619 pages Level: popular A close look at the most extreme astronomical objects predicted by relativity theory |
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As one of the co-authors of the classic
textbook "Gravitation" on relativity
theory with Wheeler and Misner, and a colleague of many of the other leaders
in the field such as Hawking and Penrose, Kip Thorne is in a unique position to
explain and relate the history of the most recent developments of relativity theory.
Thorne chooses to center his book on some of the most fascinating objects in the
relativity menagerie such as black holes and neutron stars. He starts off
with an imaginary journey into a black hole and ends with speculation
on some of the more exotic possibilities that he and his fellow physicists
are thinking up such as wormholes. Look below at Thorne's annotated table
of contents for details.
Throne does not neglect the fascinating human side of modern scientific research. Here is his description of the Robert Oppenheimer as a teacher: "... as a teacher, [he] was too fast, too impatient, too overbearing with his students. He didn't realize how little they knew...His first lecture at Caltech ... was a tour de force - powerful, elegant, insightful. When the lecture was over and the room had emptied, Richard Tolman... who by now was a close friend, remained behind to bring him down to earth: 'Well, Robert', he said; 'that was beautiful but I didn't understand a damned word.'" Thorne presents Oppenheimer's regrets for working at Los Alamos and being the father of the atomic bomb. But he also counterpoints this with Wheeler's regret for not contributing enough to the development of the bomb which might have shortened the war and saved his brother's life. If anyone still thinks that scientists are cold, humorless individuals only motivated by logic, Thorne's description of his bet with Stephen Hawking about the possible existence of a black hole in Cygnus X-1 will put that myth to rest. (Thorne would receive a subscription to "Penthouse" if a black hole were found, while Hawking would receive a subscription to "Private Eye" if not. There is a great deal of material "Black Holes & Time Warps", but no technical background is required (all the equations are relegated to the Notes section), and anyone taking the time to read and savor the story will be richly rewarded. |
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| Review by Ed Ehrlich | |
| Table Of Contents | |
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Foreword by Stephen Hawking Introduction by Frederick Seitz Preface - what this book is about, and how to read it Prologue: A Voyage among the Holes. in which the reader, in a science fiction tale encounters black holes and all their strange properties as best we understand them in the 1990s 1. The Relativity of Space and Time. in which Einstein destroys Newton's conceptions of space and time as Absolute 2. The Warping of Space and Time. in which Hermann Minkowski unifies space and time and Einstein warps them. 3. Black Holes Discovered and Rejected. in which Einstein's laws of warped spacetime predict black holes, and Einstein rejects the prediction 4. The Mystery of the White Dwarfs. in which Eddinton and Chandrasekhar do battle over the deaths of massive stars; must they shrink when the die, creating black holes? or will quantum mechanics save them? 5. Implosion Is Compulsory. in which even the nuclear force, supposedly the strongest of all forces, cannot resist the crush of gravity 6. Implosion to What?. in which all the armaments of theoretical physics cannot ward off the conclusion: implosion produces black holes 7. The Golden Age. in which black holes are found to spin and pulsate, store energy and release it, and have no hair 8. The Search. in which a method to search for black holes in the sky is proposed and pursued and succeeds (probably) 9. Serendipity. in which astronomers are forced to conclude, without any prior predictions, that black holes a millionfold heavier than the Sun inhabit the cores of galaxies (probably) 10. Ripples of Curvature. in which gravitational waves carry to Earth encoded symphonies of black holes colliding, and physicists devise instruments to monitor the waves and decipher their symphonies 11. What Is Reality? in which spacetime is viewed as curved on Sundays and flat on Mondays, and horizons are made from vacuum on Sundays and charge on Mondays, but Sunday's experiments and Monday's experiments agree in all details 12. Black Holes Evaporate. in which a black-hole horizon is clothed in an atmosphere of radiation and hot particles that slowly evaporate, and the hole shrinks and then explodes 13. Inside Black Holes. in which physicists, wrestling with Einstein's equation, seek the secret of what is inside a black hole: a route into another universe? a singularity with infinite tidal gravity? the end of space and time, and birth of quantum foam? 14. Wormholes and Time Machines. in which the author seeks insight into physical laws by asking: can highly advanced civilizations build wormholes through hyperspace for rapid interstellar travel and machines for traveling backward in time? Epilogue. and overview of Einstein's legacy, past and future, and an update on several central characters Acknowledgments. my debts of gratitude to friends and colleagues who influenced this book Characters. a list of characters who appear significantly at several different places in the book Chronology. a chronology of events, insights, and discoveries Glossary. definitions of exotic terms Notes. what makes me confident of what I say? Bibliography People Index Subject Index |
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