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First Sentence
THE ORIGIN of the universe is explained in the Younger Edda, a collection of Norse myths compiled around 1220 by the Icelandic magnate Snorri Sturleson. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE ORIGIN of the universe is explained in the Younger Edda, a collection of Norse myths compiled around 1220 by the Icelandic magnate Snorri Sturleson. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In 'The First Three Minutes' Steven Weinberg takes the reader through a (quite) modern view of one of the most enigmatic subjects in physics - the origin of the universe. First of all he takes you on a tour of some of the key events in (quite) modern cosmology that led to the picture of the young universe we have now. The discovery of cosmic red shift was an amazing revelation and showed that all the galaxies seemed to be speeding away from each other. Then the accidental detection by Penzias and Wilson of a low level radiation that seemed to come from everywhere in the universe put the 'Big Bang' model firmly ahead of rivals like the 'Steady State' model. They had tuned into the radiation from the adolescent universe.
Then the first three minutes themselves are played like a film which is repeatedly paused to allow the reader to see what's going on. What's going on is subatomic particles and high energy photons colliding billions of times a second in a thick bath of heat. After everything has cooled to just three hundred million degrees Kelvin the author looks at the scientific discoveries in this story from a historical perspective and asks some questions he sees as very important like 'why wasn't anyone looking for the cosmic microwave background?' Then finally he looks the other way into the future and to what it might reveal about the beginning of time. His 'film' of the Big Bang starts at one hundredth of a second after its start and in this last chapter he asks what could have happened before this time and how we could discover it.
He says in the epilogue that he "didn't intend to write and easy book" and this is true - the evidence and the theories are quite detailed - but he is a very good writer and really knows what he's talking about so I didn't get very lost. There is a mathematical section at the back that looks at the ideas discussed in the book like black body radiation and critical density and it is pretty tricky but he purposefully keeps it very separate so it can be skipped if you want to avoid a headache. This book was first published in '77 and so some of it is dated - you realise how quickly physics moves on. Quarks are a very recent theory at the time of writing and strings are nowhere near but this doesn't matter at all. It is still accepted that the stuff in this book is true but it has been expanded on in the last twenty-five years. It is a tribute to Steven Weinberg's mind and writing that all of his predictions of the future of cosmological research have happened and all his theory is correct still.
If you're at all interested in cosmology or particle physics then this is defiantly for you. If you think a much more cutting edge view is what you want then go for something more modern but you'll be missing out. As a reviewer in the seventies put it, when it comes to the describing the Big Bang "it's hard to imagine the job being better done". Exactly - deserves a place on your bookshelf.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A masterpiece. Weinberg was able to keep all the physics, with almost no mathematics. There is, in this book, a sense of drama seldom to be found in scientific books. You should start your cosmology studies here, independently of how far you intend to go.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Steven Weinberg is just incredible. He is able to bring complex material that high level physicists have trouble imagining to the general public. His book is easy to read, though not easy to understand. This isn't "High Energy Physics for the Complete Idiot," but it does provide simple conceptual (not mathmatical) arguments which help explain the first three minutes of the Universe. If you ever wanted to know what those physics professors do without having to take all their courses...this is the book for you! I recommend it highly.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book
Now that we have found the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, an ancient signature of the Big Bang, this book mentions that there are also other Big Bang signatures, from even... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr Grumpy
Brilliant, but picture of the universe is cold and pointless
The origin of the universe, according to the latest scientific findings (as of 1977). Written by the eminent physicist Steven Weinberg, two years before he got a Nobel Prize for... Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2010 by Andres C. Salama
Great book
An easy read from start to finish. The author presents some very difficult ideas, and a facinating story, in an easily readable manor. Read more
Published on 13 May 2009 by C. STARRETT
A bang in the dawn: Physics of the origin of the universe
This book in cosmology requires some knowledge in undergraduate level physics, where the author chronicles the very early history of the universe while describing the underlying... Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2008 by Rama Rao
Difficult to understand if not knowledgeable on the subject.
To appreciate this book you'd have to have a few college classes on cosmology. Because I haven't this book put me to sleep. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 1999
Good but Difficult
Steven Weinberg is one of the great physicists of the 20th century. "The First Three Minutes" is really written for the undergraduate physics major and is too difficult... Read more
Published on 4 Jun 1999
Wonderfull
This is a great book that explains the origin of the universe even the layman can read it, but if you are more advanced there's a mathematical suplement in the back.
Published on 24 July 1998
Interesting material, but difficult reading.
The topics are fascinating. However the leverl at which this book was written, it seems that it was intened to descuss some rather serious astronomy with the layman. Read more
Published on 7 May 1998
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