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Title: The Birth of Time: How Astronomers Measured the Age of the Universe by John R. Gribbin ISBN: 0-300-08914-7 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (4 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Measuring the Age and Size of the Universe
Comment: Questions about the age of the universe are tightly coupled to understanding the size and structure of the universe. John Gribbin, a research astronomer as well as a popular writer, tells the story of how astronomers and physicists gradually recognized that the universe was both very large and very old.
We all know today that the universe is immense, that the Milky Way is one of many galaxies, the age of the universe is measured in billions of years, and it began with a big bang. This fundamental understanding is actually quite new. In 1920 the scientific community was deeply divided over whether the Milky Way was essentially the entire universe or whether other large galaxies existed. The age of the universe was significantly underestimated. The Big Bang Theory was first considered seriously in the 1940s.
The Birth of Time is a 200-page detailed look at how this remarkable story unfolded. Gribbin writes well and his explanations are quite lucid. We learn not only about major breakthroughs, but we also explore blind alleys and dead ends. It is an exciting, intriguing story, one that definitely warrants reading.
Nonetheless, this book has one major drawback. Gribbin fails to use explanatory drawings or graphs. For example, he describes the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram entirely in words. We laboriously read: So in a diagram (a kind of graph) where the brightness of each star (its absolute brightness, after allowing for how far away it is) is plotted against its colour, all hydrogen-burning stars lie along a single band in the diagram, a band which is called the main sequence, running roughly diagonally from top left to bottom right.
Likewise, without any diagrams or graphs, or equations, Gribbin discusses parallax measurements, the redshift-distance relation, Hubble's Constant, gravitational lensing, spectral lines, and the Cepheid period-luminosity relation. (There were eight black and white full page astronomical photos that were indeed helpful.)
I hope John Gribbin updates his work to include recent findings regarding dark matter and dark energy, and the now highly precise age (13.7 billion years) assigned to the universe.
I reviewed the 2000 edition published by Universities Press.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting, but lacking
Comment: This book is an interesting history of the process of developing methods to determine the age of the stars and the universe. The author makes it very clear that there are assumpitons upon assumption, but that steady progress is being made and that different techniques are converging to common answers. Much emphasis is given to the importance of the Hubble Factor and why we still csn't call it a Hubble Constant. I found that, and the quest for refining the Hubble value very interesting.
One of the keys to these estimates is Cepheid variable stars. More explanation of what these stars are, theories about them, and how they are used would be helpful. So would some charts and diagrams. Also how they are distinguished from the other types of variable stars thta are mentioned. I have read other explanations of Cepheid stars, for instance in StarDate magazine, and know that they can be explained well even in relatively non-technical terms. I would also have liked more stragihtforward explanation of how the Hubbble factor is used, not just that it is used.
Rating: 5
Summary: Surveys the mystery and explains how it was solved
Comment: In the mid 1990s astronomers faced problems in dating the age of the Universe, with the Hubble providing information which seemed out of sync with previous observations and notions. By the end of the century scientists concurred on some remarkable facts which placed the age of the Universe at an age at least a billion years older than its oldest stars. This surveys the mystery and explains how it was solved.
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Title: In Search of the Big Bang: The Life and Death of the Universe by John R. Gribbin ISBN: 0140269894 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others (Helix Books) by Martin J. Rees ISBN: 0738200336 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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Title: Abel's Proof : An Essay on the Sources and Meaning of Mathematical Unsolvability by Peter Pesic ISBN: 0262162164 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Pendulum : Leon Foucault and the Triumph of Science by Amir D. Aczel ISBN: 0743464788 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: e: The Story of a Number by Eli Maor ISBN: 0691058547 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 04 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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