Book
A user's guide to the universe : surviving the perils of black holes, time paradoxes, and quantum uncertainty / Dave Goldberg and Jeff Blomquist.
Explains string theory, quantum mechanics, parallel universes and the beginning of time in a conversational, easy-to-understand way and answers enduring questions about life on other planets and breaking the light-speed barrier.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780470496510 (acid-free paper)
- ISBN: 0470496517 (acid-free paper)
- Physical Description: vii, 296 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
- Publisher: Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, c2010.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-290) and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Special relativity -- Quantum weirdness -- Randomness -- The standard model -- Time travel -- The expanding universe -- The big bang -- Extraterrestrials -- The future. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Physics > Popular works. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Kirtland Community College.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirtland Community College Library | QC 24.5 .G65 2010 | 30542302 | General Collection | Available | - |
A User's Guide to the Universe : Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty
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Table of Contents
A User's Guide to the Universe : Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty
| Section | Section Description | Page Number |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledgments | p. vii | |
| Introduction | p. 1 | |
| "So, what do you do?" | ||
| 1 | Special Relativity | p. 7 |
| "What happens if I'm traveling at the speed of light, and I try to look at myself in a mirror?" | ||
| Why can't you tell how fast a ship is moving through fog? | p. 11 | |
| How fast does a light beam go if you're running beside it? | p. 16 | |
| If you head off in a spaceship traveling at nearly the speed of light, what horrors await you when you return? | p. 20 | |
| Can you reach the speed of light (and look at yourself in a mirror)? | p. 23 | |
| Isn't relativity supposed to be about turning atoms into limitless power? | p. 26 | |
| 2 | Quantum Weirdness | p. 33 |
| "Is Schrödinger's Cat Dead or Alive?" | ||
| Is light made of tiny particles, or a big wave? | p. 38 | |
| Can you change reality just by looking at it? | p. 43 | |
| If you look at them closely enough, what are electrons, really? | p. 47 | |
| Is there some way I can blame quantum mechanics for all those times I lose things? | p. 50 | |
| Can I build a transporter, like on Star Trek? | p. 56 | |
| If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? | p. 59 | |
| 3 | Randomness | p. 67 |
| "Does God play dice with the universe?" | ||
| If the physical world is so unpredictable, why doesn't it always seem that way? | p. 70 | |
| How does carbon dating work? | p. 76 | |
| Does God play dice with the universe? | p. 80 | |
| 4 | The Standard Model | p. 89 |
| "Why didn't the Large Hadron Collider destroy Earth?" | ||
| What do we need a multibillion-dollar accelerator for, anyway? | p. 93 | |
| How do we discover subatomic particles? | p. 99 | |
| Why are there so many different rules for different particles? | p. 103 | |
| Where do the forces really come from? | p. 108 | |
| Why can't I lose weight (or mass)-all of it? | p. 114 | |
| How could little ol' LHC possibly destroy the great big world? | p. 118 | |
| If we discover the Higgs, can physicists just call it a day? | p. 122 | |
| 5 | Time Travel | p. 131 |
| "Can I build a time machine?" | ||
| Can I build a perpetual motion machine? | p. 133 | |
| Are black holes real, or are they just made up by bored physicists? | p. 137 | |
| What happens if you fall into a black hole? | p. 142 | |
| Can you go back in time and buy stock in Microsoft? | p. 145 | |
| Who does time travel right? | p. 151 | |
| How can I build a practical time machine? | p. 154 | |
| What are my prospects for changing the past? | p. 161 | |
| 6 | The Expanding Universe | p. 165 |
| "If the universe is expanding, what's it expanding into?" | ||
| Where is the center of the universe? | p. 170 | |
| What's at the edge of the universe? | p. 173 | |
| What is empty space made of? | p. 176 | |
| How empty is space? | p. 181 | |
| Where's all of the stuff? | p. 185 | |
| Why is the universe accelerating? | p. 188 | |
| What is the shape of the universe? | p. 192 | |
| What's the universe expanding into? | p. 195 | |
| 7 | The Big Bang | p. 199 |
| "What happened before the Big Bang?" | ||
| Why can't we see all the way back to the Big Bang? | p. 205 | |
| Shouldn't the universe be (half) filled with antimatter? | p. 208 | |
| Where do atoms come from? | p. 211 | |
| How did particles gain all that weight? | p. 216 | |
| Is there an exact duplicate of you somewhere else in time and space? | p. 218 | |
| Why is there matter? | p. 225 | |
| What happened at the very beginning of time? | p. 227 | |
| What was before the beginning? | p. 228 | |
| 8 | Extraterrestrials | p. 235 |
| "Is there life on other planets?" | ||
| Where is everybody? | p. 237 | |
| How many habitable planets are there? | p. 241 | |
| How long do intelligent civilizations last? | p. 245 | |
| What are the odds against our own existence? | p. 248 | |
| 9 | The Future | p. 253 |
| "What don't we know?" | ||
| What is Dark Matter? | p. 256 | |
| How long do protons last? | p. 264 | |
| How massive or nuetinos? | p. 267 | |
| What won't we know anytime soon? | p. 274 | |
| Further Reading | p. 281 | |
| Technical Reading | p. 283 | |
| Index | p. 291 |
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