Customer Rating: 
Summary: Pi, À la mode.
Comment: I love this densely packed, entirely informative book. It gives a new level of understanding for those who enjoy reading about mathematics but who (like myself) have received no formal training in the field. There is a handy "notations" section, which was great, but I could have used a glossary as well. Otherwise, a great book and one I'm very glad I bought.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Scholastic
Comment: I love Mathematics and Physics The writter obviously loves them too judging by his 'Teacher' approach in presenting both subjects. The carefully crafted presentation in this book is a welcome approach for subjects such as these. I'm not finished reading the book but I already love it. Thanks for taking the effort.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of a kind
Comment: I have quite a few popular science titles on my bookshelves, but if my house burns down and I can rescue only one of these, this is the one.
The book is truly exceptional. Reading the text is a pleasure, as if one is listening to a talk by Penrose himself. At the same time the book does not shy away from in-depth explanations and dives deep into the beauty of modern physics. No other science book written for a large audience comes anywhere near to achieving this.
Inevitably, Penrose makes frequent use of math. Math that on occasions goes well beyond secondary school stuff. If this scares you: don't buy this book.
Anyone else: put it in your shopping basket now! You won't regret it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The degree of difficulty of this book depends on...
Comment: In previous reviews some people argue whether this is a difficult book. How difficult this book is depends on how much math background you possess and how you want to read it. Actually, whether it is a popular science book depends on the above mentioned factors. It could be very difficult or could be very rough (I don't want to use the wording "easy" here).
If you want to understand everything mentioned in this book, this book is VERY DIFFICULT for someone who does not possess the deep background of mathematics. I would rather say if the reader does not possess the degree of mathematics, it is almost impossible for him/her to understand everything if he/she does not seek for auxiliary study. Take the initial chapters for example, the Non-Euclidean Geometry is walked through very quickly in a few pages here. But to really understand what it's all about in this book, perhaps you need to study a whole of Non-Euclidean Geometry textbook. And before that you have to master Euclidean Geometry first, including plane geometry and solid geometry, which means some more textbooks are needed. And all the above mentioned is just for the content about fewer than 10 pages in Penrose's this book. Another example, also in the initial chapter, is the continuous fraction. You can search "continuous fraction" in Google and see what you get. In Wikipedia there is a whole bunch of stuff. And there are mathematically professional papers researching continuous fraction. And continuous fraction is covered in Penroses's book in about 2 pages and several paragraphs. There are a whole lot of things skipped in this book. To really understand the content, perhaps you shall pursue a Math degree first.
But if you just want to skip everything you don't understand and just read the non-mathematics related text, then the book becomes a popular science book. Only that it contains more pages. And you get an extremely rough idea of what something is roughly about.
Personally I don't know whether I shall recommend this book. Perhaps it still depends on the audience. If you have a math degree or if you possess deep and complete knowledge of mathematics, this book is great since it introduces you to the beauty of physics. If you don't possess much mathematics background BUT WANT TO UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING IN THE BOOKS YOU READ, then skip it. Go get the math knowledge first. You could still buy this book but it may stay on your book shelf for quite a long time. If you are a reader that just wants to get an extremely rough idea of what some math and physics is about, then you could still proceed.
What you get and how you feel of this book depend on how you want to read it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Road to Penrose
Comment: The only objection I have to this book is the title: quite pompous, and debatable too. If it had been written by any other human being on this planet, I would have reacted with (very) bad gradings. But, this is SIR Roger Penrose folks, one of the most brilliant intellects alive. Yes, he is VERY opinionated, and some of his forays into philosophy, cognitive science, and neurobiology sound a bit naive to me. However, Roger Penrose THINKS, right or wrongly, and that is already enough (if you think that everyone thinks, you are most definitely not thinking yourself).
The fellow has a monumental knowledge, largely displayed into this colossus of a book. Virtually every topic contains a treat, a slight twist revealing Penrose's magical insight (see for instance his treatment of clifford algebras).
On a final note, this is the place where one can learn about twistors and get something out of it, directly from their creator. Although I have my doubts about twistors providing the final solution for theoretical physics (Penrose is making no such claim, of course), I do believe that something very important has been hit here.
PS The book is virtually without formulas, but it is NOT elementary. Even Ph.D. levels in math and/or physics will find something for their taste
Summary: Pi, À la mode.
Comment: I love this densely packed, entirely informative book. It gives a new level of understanding for those who enjoy reading about mathematics but who (like myself) have received no formal training in the field. There is a handy "notations" section, which was great, but I could have used a glossary as well. Otherwise, a great book and one I'm very glad I bought.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Scholastic
Comment: I love Mathematics and Physics The writter obviously loves them too judging by his 'Teacher' approach in presenting both subjects. The carefully crafted presentation in this book is a welcome approach for subjects such as these. I'm not finished reading the book but I already love it. Thanks for taking the effort.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of a kind
Comment: I have quite a few popular science titles on my bookshelves, but if my house burns down and I can rescue only one of these, this is the one.
The book is truly exceptional. Reading the text is a pleasure, as if one is listening to a talk by Penrose himself. At the same time the book does not shy away from in-depth explanations and dives deep into the beauty of modern physics. No other science book written for a large audience comes anywhere near to achieving this.
Inevitably, Penrose makes frequent use of math. Math that on occasions goes well beyond secondary school stuff. If this scares you: don't buy this book.
Anyone else: put it in your shopping basket now! You won't regret it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The degree of difficulty of this book depends on...
Comment: In previous reviews some people argue whether this is a difficult book. How difficult this book is depends on how much math background you possess and how you want to read it. Actually, whether it is a popular science book depends on the above mentioned factors. It could be very difficult or could be very rough (I don't want to use the wording "easy" here).
If you want to understand everything mentioned in this book, this book is VERY DIFFICULT for someone who does not possess the deep background of mathematics. I would rather say if the reader does not possess the degree of mathematics, it is almost impossible for him/her to understand everything if he/she does not seek for auxiliary study. Take the initial chapters for example, the Non-Euclidean Geometry is walked through very quickly in a few pages here. But to really understand what it's all about in this book, perhaps you need to study a whole of Non-Euclidean Geometry textbook. And before that you have to master Euclidean Geometry first, including plane geometry and solid geometry, which means some more textbooks are needed. And all the above mentioned is just for the content about fewer than 10 pages in Penrose's this book. Another example, also in the initial chapter, is the continuous fraction. You can search "continuous fraction" in Google and see what you get. In Wikipedia there is a whole bunch of stuff. And there are mathematically professional papers researching continuous fraction. And continuous fraction is covered in Penroses's book in about 2 pages and several paragraphs. There are a whole lot of things skipped in this book. To really understand the content, perhaps you shall pursue a Math degree first.
But if you just want to skip everything you don't understand and just read the non-mathematics related text, then the book becomes a popular science book. Only that it contains more pages. And you get an extremely rough idea of what something is roughly about.
Personally I don't know whether I shall recommend this book. Perhaps it still depends on the audience. If you have a math degree or if you possess deep and complete knowledge of mathematics, this book is great since it introduces you to the beauty of physics. If you don't possess much mathematics background BUT WANT TO UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING IN THE BOOKS YOU READ, then skip it. Go get the math knowledge first. You could still buy this book but it may stay on your book shelf for quite a long time. If you are a reader that just wants to get an extremely rough idea of what some math and physics is about, then you could still proceed.
What you get and how you feel of this book depend on how you want to read it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Road to Penrose
Comment: The only objection I have to this book is the title: quite pompous, and debatable too. If it had been written by any other human being on this planet, I would have reacted with (very) bad gradings. But, this is SIR Roger Penrose folks, one of the most brilliant intellects alive. Yes, he is VERY opinionated, and some of his forays into philosophy, cognitive science, and neurobiology sound a bit naive to me. However, Roger Penrose THINKS, right or wrongly, and that is already enough (if you think that everyone thinks, you are most definitely not thinking yourself).
The fellow has a monumental knowledge, largely displayed into this colossus of a book. Virtually every topic contains a treat, a slight twist revealing Penrose's magical insight (see for instance his treatment of clifford algebras).
On a final note, this is the place where one can learn about twistors and get something out of it, directly from their creator. Although I have my doubts about twistors providing the final solution for theoretical physics (Penrose is making no such claim, of course), I do believe that something very important has been hit here.
PS The book is virtually without formulas, but it is NOT elementary. Even Ph.D. levels in math and/or physics will find something for their taste
The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe Reviews: Page 2 of 31
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