The Labyrinth of Time: Introducing the Universe / Edition 1

by Michael Lockwood

Overview

Modern physics has revealed a universe that is a much stranger place than we could have imagined, filled with black holes and dark matter and parallel lines meeting in space. And the puzzle at the center of our present understanding of the universe is time.
Now, in The Labyrinth of Time, Michael Lockwood takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the nature of things. A brilliant writer, Lockwood illuminates the philosophical questions about past, present, and future, our experience of time, and the possibility of time travel, in a book that is both challenging and great fun. Indeed, he provides the most careful, lively, and up-to-date introduction to the physics of time and the structure of the universe to be found anywhere in print. He guides us step by step through relativity theory and quantum physics, introducing and explaining the ground-breaking ideas of Newton and Boltzmann, Einstein and Schroedinger, Penrose and Hawking. We zoom in on the behavior of molecules and atoms, and pull back to survey the expansion of the universe. We learn about entropy and gravity, black holes and wormholes, about how it all began and where we are all headed.
Lockwood's aim is not just to boggle the mind but to lead us towards an understanding of the science and philosophy. Things will never seem the same again after a voyage through The Labyrinth of Time.

A model of balance and clarity.
—Paul Davies, Times Higher Education Supplement

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199217267
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/23/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Michael Lockwood is a Fellow of Green College, at Oxford University, where he has taught philosophy for many years. His books include the highly acclaimed Mind, Brain, and the Quantum.

Table of Contents

1. Two Concepts of Time2. Time and Space: a Marriage is Arranged3. Taking Space-Time Seriously4. From Flat to Curved Space-Time5. Weaving the Cosmic Tapestry6. Closed Timelike Curves: Science Fact or Science Fiction? 7. Classical Time Travel: the Toils of Paradox8. Hamilton's Legacy: Physical Systems and their State Spaces9. Time Asymmetry and the Second Law10. Entropy, Electrodynamics and the Role of Gravity11. 'Drawn Through Life Backwards'12. The Unyielding Past13. The Emergence of Order14. From Quantum Leaps to Schrodinger's Cat15. Schrodinger's Time Traveler16. Space, Time, and Quantum Gravity: Physics at the Frontier17. The Time of Our Lives18. Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

"Michael Lockwood's book The Labyrinth of Time: Introducing the Universe has just appeared. I highly recommend it. It's a wonderful overview of the physics and philosophy of time, crafted extremely carefully and engagingly (yet without compromising any content) for the lay reader, superbly produced and illustrated. Oh, and it's true." —Professor David Deutsch, author of The Fabric of Reality

"Lockwood takes the informed general reader through relativity theory and quantum physics on the large scale as well as the very small, reviewing theories of Newton, Boltzmann, Einstein, Penrose, Schrödinger and Hawking and the notions of flat and curved time-space, closed timelike curves, the paradoxes of time travel, time asymmetry and the Second Law, entropy, electrodynamics, the emergence of order, quantum jumps, quantum gravity, and the role of the human observer in all of it. Lockwood's illustrations are particularly clear and helpful and his references could serve as a model for like works."—SciTech Book News

"Lockwood...accomplishes here what may be lacking in other writings about the physics and philosophy of time...Lockwood is a gifted writer; the book is interesting, challenging and fun."—CHOICE

From the Publisher