Book
Now : the physics of time
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
New York ; London : W.W. Norton & Company, [2016]
Physical Description
364 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Summary
"A monumental work on the flow of time, from the universe's creation to "Now," by the best-selling author of Physics for Future Presidents. "Now" is a simple concept--you're reading this sentence now. Yet a real definition of "now" has eluded even the great Einstein. We know that time stretches and is affected by gravity and velocity. Yet, as eminent physicist Richard A. Muller points out, it is only today that we have all the physics at hand--relativity, entropy, entanglement, antimatter, and the Big Bang--to explain the flow of time. With these building blocks in place, Muller reaches a startling conclusion: our expanding universe is continuously creating not only new space but also new time. The front edge of this new time is what we call "now," and this moment is truly unique--it is the only moment in which we can exercise our free will. Muller's thought-provoking vision is a powerful counter to established theories in science and philosophy, and his arguments will spark major debate about the most fundamental assumptions of our universe"--
Notes
Includes index.
Contents
- The entangled enigma
- Einstein's childhood regression
- The leaping now
- Contradictions and paradoxes
- Lightspeed limit, lightspeed loophole
- Imaginary time
- To infinity and beyond
- An arrow of confusion
- Demystifying entropy
- Mystifying entropy
- Time explained
- Our unlikely universe
- The universe erupts
- The end of time
- Throwing entropy under the bus
- Alternative arrows
- A cat both dead and alive
- Tickling the quantum ghost
- Einstein is spooked
- Backward time travel observed
- Beyond physics
- Cogito ergo sum
- Free will
- The 4D Big Bang
- The meaning of now.