Customer Rating: 
Summary: Hawking is amazing
Comment: This simple and lucidly written book is an update to the original a Brief History of Time. This one is simplified and very easy to understand. It is very fluid and it was a pleasure to read, which I finished in a few hours! This is the Scientific book for the layman to be sure.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting yet comprehensive for laymen ...
Comment: I understand some of the concepts presented but was disappointed that the time wasn't taken to explain the minor details of some of the theories. What is a blackbody? The term wasn't in the glossary or fully explained in the body of the text. The example of interference was, on the other hand, too simple and explained a two-slit experiment that a 4th grader would understand. Einsten's theory of relativity is only cursorily explained.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "A Short History of Sometimes Useful Theories"
Comment: There are a lot of theories in this book and no imagination. Because Mr. Hawking has a lot of complex math equations that make little sense to any one but his fellow math buddies why dose that make him an authority on anything.
Secondly I would argue that black holes are givers of life not takers they make room in the limited amount of space in the galaxy for other solar systems to exist. The ultimate predator, scavenger they kill indiscriminately just like any lion or wolf and slowly evaporate that energy back into the universe. Think about it for a second most of your really big black holes are in the center of the galaxy and that is where all the action in the galaxy is. Without Black holes the galaxy would be nothing but big bodies slamming into each other even all the way out here on the edge of the galaxy where we are. Not only that but it has been proven for a long time that if your at a correct angle you can easily survive very close to a black hole. This would be a huge benefit for any solar system you would not have to worry about stray comets and asteroids like we do. But it takes imagination to see things like this something Mr. Hawking and his math club lack.
There are other, how in the world would he know these things in this book. For instance the theory that man can not travel faster than the speed of light if Mr. Hawking was as much a student of history as he claims. He would know that in the history of automobile travel it was once believed that of you went too fast in a car you would die. And this was a widely accepted scientific theory at the time. Theoretical Physics and Math will only get you so far the only way to find out is to do. This book should have been called "A Short History of Sometimes Useful Theories" sense that is what it is and these theories hold no more weight than anyone else's theories including yours.
Eric
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great overview!
Comment: Stephen Hawking is one of the few truly brilliant men who also has the ability to speak in a concise and meaningful way to people who are not experts. The book offers the absolute best overview of modern physics covering theories of both the past and present. Specifically, Hawking provides one of the best overviews of modern quantum theory that I have read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Comment: I think this book is as close as anyone will come to make quantum mechanics an easy subject. That is why I gave it 5 stars.
That being said, I only have a marginal increase of my understanding of the subject after reading the book.
I guess it is true that : "If you say that you understand quantum mechanics, and if you are NOT surprised, then you really did not understand quantum mechanics" !
Summary: Hawking is amazing
Comment: This simple and lucidly written book is an update to the original a Brief History of Time. This one is simplified and very easy to understand. It is very fluid and it was a pleasure to read, which I finished in a few hours! This is the Scientific book for the layman to be sure.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting yet comprehensive for laymen ...
Comment: I understand some of the concepts presented but was disappointed that the time wasn't taken to explain the minor details of some of the theories. What is a blackbody? The term wasn't in the glossary or fully explained in the body of the text. The example of interference was, on the other hand, too simple and explained a two-slit experiment that a 4th grader would understand. Einsten's theory of relativity is only cursorily explained.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "A Short History of Sometimes Useful Theories"
Comment: There are a lot of theories in this book and no imagination. Because Mr. Hawking has a lot of complex math equations that make little sense to any one but his fellow math buddies why dose that make him an authority on anything.
Secondly I would argue that black holes are givers of life not takers they make room in the limited amount of space in the galaxy for other solar systems to exist. The ultimate predator, scavenger they kill indiscriminately just like any lion or wolf and slowly evaporate that energy back into the universe. Think about it for a second most of your really big black holes are in the center of the galaxy and that is where all the action in the galaxy is. Without Black holes the galaxy would be nothing but big bodies slamming into each other even all the way out here on the edge of the galaxy where we are. Not only that but it has been proven for a long time that if your at a correct angle you can easily survive very close to a black hole. This would be a huge benefit for any solar system you would not have to worry about stray comets and asteroids like we do. But it takes imagination to see things like this something Mr. Hawking and his math club lack.
There are other, how in the world would he know these things in this book. For instance the theory that man can not travel faster than the speed of light if Mr. Hawking was as much a student of history as he claims. He would know that in the history of automobile travel it was once believed that of you went too fast in a car you would die. And this was a widely accepted scientific theory at the time. Theoretical Physics and Math will only get you so far the only way to find out is to do. This book should have been called "A Short History of Sometimes Useful Theories" sense that is what it is and these theories hold no more weight than anyone else's theories including yours.
Eric
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great overview!
Comment: Stephen Hawking is one of the few truly brilliant men who also has the ability to speak in a concise and meaningful way to people who are not experts. The book offers the absolute best overview of modern physics covering theories of both the past and present. Specifically, Hawking provides one of the best overviews of modern quantum theory that I have read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Comment: I think this book is as close as anyone will come to make quantum mechanics an easy subject. That is why I gave it 5 stars.
That being said, I only have a marginal increase of my understanding of the subject after reading the book.
I guess it is true that : "If you say that you understand quantum mechanics, and if you are NOT surprised, then you really did not understand quantum mechanics" !