It is really strange how a single book can change your mind, your perception & challenge your own knowledge about a particular subject. Although cosmology (study of universe) is relatively unexplored branch of physics, I was convinced I know enough of it by knowing the name, density, distance, position of planets.
I was never into the hobby of reading books other than my textbooks or gossip magazines. 4 months back, when I noticed a 210 page book in A5 size at NFC community centre in Delhi. i was not planning to buy that but somehow bought that book as a plan B on my vacation. I was thinking, just in case I have plenty of time & nothing much to do, then i might end up reading few pages of this book. purpose being something to read in free time not to gain knowledge. What I didn’t realize at that time, that this very book will change my perception of universe, time, space & even physics itself. Reading a physics book 5 years after your graduation is damn boring. But this book turns out to be different, this one was without using any equation or complex mathematics. Eistein's famous E=MC2 is the only equation used in the book.
I have been reading (on & off) this Book titled “A Brief history of time” by Stephen Hawking since i bought it 4 months ago. It took so much time because of a). my non-reading habits, b). You need to read it slowly & pause to think after almost each paragraph (in order to understand it fully). Stephen hawking dispite being a world renowned scientist keep it simple to be understood by normal science graduate. whoever is curious to know.
We are yet to understand the concept of time. Time (duration) can be different depending upon its frame of reference. Time has no meaning before Big Bang (start of universe, as per hawking). We need a unified theory of physics which would consider all forces at a time. Currently when we talk about gravitational forces, we ignore other forces (electromagnetic, nuclear & others). Similarly when we talk about nuclear , we ignore other. It has something to do with our inability to workout the complex problems, which is needed if we consider all at a time. Einstein was genius, else how come someone think that Time can be virtually stop if we can travel at speed of light. Those are some issues explained there.
Another thing about the book is that you can’t summarize what you have learned. It is too complex & too vast a subject to be understood fully in small books. You can get the idea, which direct we need to think. A Book which can convince myself logically that what I presume so far, was not right at all. That Book can be called a Good book.
*******NICE READ********
