A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty

Reasonably good. A little more techanicality was expected. But, nice n easy reading. Good for uninitiated.

Das Buch erfordert solide Englischkenntnisse, allerdings nicht ansatzweise so sehr wie ich vermutet hätte. Die Erklärungen sind überwiegend so einfach gehalten, dass man schon mit rudimentären Physikkenntnissen alles verstehen sollte, meine Schulzeit ist nun auch schon eine Weile her. Die Erklärung der speziellen Relativitätstheorie im ersten Kapitel sollte z.B. für jeden ansatzweise naturwissenschaftlich Interessierten gut nachvollziehbar sein, die Beispiele sind ausführlich und gut gewählt. Das Buch wird nie trocken und verzichtet beinahe vollständig auf mathematische Herleitungen, nur allseits bekannte Gleichungen wie E = mc² werden erklärt, allerdings auch ohne zu langweilen. Die Beispiele orientieren sich u.a. an aktuellen Filmen und Serien (z.B. wird eine Futurama-Folge oder Terminator im Kapitel zu Zeitreisen herangezogen). Es wird aber nie wirklich albern und man ist nach dem Lesen tatsächlich schlauer (oder es kommt einem zumindest so vor :)) und kann dieses (Halb)Wissen auch weitergeben. Die Autoren erklären Quantenphänomene, Zeitreisen, schwarze Löcher und vieles andere so unterhaltsam, dass das Lesen sehr befriedigend ist. Absolut empfehlenswert, auch für Nicht-Geeks :)

Veramente un ottimo libro!Spiega tantissime cose complicate (es. fisica quantistica) con esempi comprensibili a bambini di 5 anni.Lo stile di scrittura e' molto simpatico e si legge con piacere. Consigliatissimo!

Without a doubt, this is the funniest science book I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Both authors squeeze their personalities amazingly well into each and every page of the book, while maintaining a clear and logical thought process that clearly explains the various physics and astronomical topics discussed.Should you buy this book? **YES**The topics covered are generally considered complex: Einstein's theory of general relativity, special relativity, black holes, matter, space, the big bang theory, etc.The authors slowly build the reader up, through a series of humorous examples and simple explanations, to the complex topics that are most interesting.One of the other great things about this book is that the topics require no prior mathematical knowledge. While generally, one is unable to discuss general relativity without mathematics, the authors supplement this knowledge with simple examples and logical arguments which are equally effective.I really enjoyed reading this book. I learned a lot about the formation and design of the universe(s)?, quantum mechanics, string theory, and a wide slew of other topics. It is definitely worth a read, you won't regret it.

I want to start of by saying that before I read this book, I knew as much about physics as you do about how Einsteins hair got that way. Not a lot.But page after page the authors explained complicated physics in a simple, yet comprehensive way.You will find very little "sciency" words, other than the names of the concepts they explain in their unique way.Besides being easy to understand and easier to read, the authors make use of everyday situations as examples and use (very funny) cartoons to make you want to be late for that cool party you're already 2 hours late for because you can't put the book down.And had I not learned so much about physics in this book, I would have thought they wrote a comedy book.At regular intervals, I would catch myself thinking "How come no one explained it like this before? I would have paid attention if they had!"To give you a taste of what I mean by funny, but still very informative:"Our universe seems stranger than it needs to be. ...It's made up of some sort of "dark matter" that doesn't interact with light ("dark") but that is a source of gravity ("matter"). In other words the name does nothing more then describe our ignorance. This explanation is only moderately more satisfying than saying gravity is caused by fairies."About Time Travel:"Imagine you got it in your head to do something profoundly stupid like kill your own grandfather before your father was conceived.*(We don't know why physicists have gotten into the macabre habit of talking about grand-patricide, but who are we to argue?)"I was also surprised to find a couple of pages here and there that rate popular movies and tv-shows against actual physics.I would recommend this book to anyone that likes learning new things, and especially those that like to learn new things and be entertained at the same time.