Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I had expected this book (foolishly judging it by the cover) to present a new theological interpretation of cosmology, or perhaps a theory based on new astronomical observations. In fact it seems as if Aczel had the title "God's Equation" thrust on him by a publisher eager for more sales.
The book is actually a pretty enjoyable and readable introduction to special and general relativity, interwoven with some more modern physics and plenty of anecdotes about Einstein's life.
The author has conducted unique research of his own, commissioning his father to translate some of Einstein's previously unpublished letters. And so an intriguing character sketch emerges, blended seamlessly with the science. It dwells at length on the "greatest blunder", the cosmological constant, which is still debated by cosmologists today.
The explanations of the physics are really rather good. I would highly recommend this book to someone who's after an easier read than Hawking's Brief History of Time, and not yet ready for the Elegant Universe.
A very personal, thoughtful, and welcome book.
Click Here to see more reviews about: God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe
Are we on the verge of solving the riddle of creation using Einstein's "greatest blunder"?In a work that is at once lucid, exhilarating and profound, renowned mathematician Dr. Amir Aczel, critically acclaimed author of Fermat's Last Theorem, takes us into the heart of science's greatest mystery. In January 1998, astronomers found evidence that the cosmos is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. The way we perceive the universe was changed forever. The most compelling theory cosmologists could find to explain this phenomenon was Einstein's cosmological constant, a theory he conceived--and rejected---over eighty years ago. Drawing on newly discovered letters of Einstein--many translated here for the first time--years of research, and interviews with prominent mathematicians, cosmologists, physicists, and astronomers, Aczel takes us on a fascinating journey into "the strange geometry of space-time," and into the mind of a genius. Here the unthinkable becomes real: an infinite, ever-expanding, ever-accelerating universe whose only absolute is the speed of light. Awesome in scope, thrilling in detail, God's Equation is storytelling at its finest.
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