Topics/Events
1A. This book is about Physics. Most of the topics discussed in this book are hard to grasp and I therefore felt lost a lot of the time while reading it. I found myself having to reread many of the chapters but I am glad I did. After completing the book, I feel like a have peered into the minds of some of the smartest people to ever live on Earth. People like Newton, Eisenstein, and Hawking. Hawking does the best he can to explain extremely complicated theories to people that have no background knowledge of the subject. He does a pretty good job at explaining it and I feel I could give a rudimentary explanation of most of the theories. He explains how all of these things relate the the universe and explains the origin of space. He goes into extreme detail about black holes and speaks deeply about the big bang.
1B. A book that is probably meant for people who have a simple understanding of Physics prior to reading it. The book gives great explanations of what time is and how the universe works.
2. The author chose to write about this subject because it is what he has devoted his entire life to. He has been studying space and theoretical physics for over 40 years and has developed some of the theories detailed in the book, so who better to write about it than him? He is probably the person on Earth that has the best understanding of theoretical physics and therefore can easily explain it to someone who has no clue what he is talking about.
3. I have always been interested in space so as I was wandering around the Santa Maria Public Library it caught my eye. I had obviously heard of Stephen Hawking and read the introduction to the book. It seemed like something I would enjoy. At first I did not want to keep reading because it was a difficult read, however after powering through the initial dislike, I found it was a very interesting topic that I ended up enjoying.
4. The book seemed very realistic to me. After all, he was basically explaining how we came into existence and what was to come of our future as humans, what is anymore realistic? I love reading and watching documentaries about space so I knew some of the basic principles he was talking about. I could connect most of the writing to stuff I had heard of before. It was when he started explaining difficult to understand theories when I began to check out.
People
1. A lot of the people that Hawking described in this book were dead long before he was born. He therefore had never met them and had to come to his own conclusions about how they may have acted. I believe he described most of them how they probably were, he is a very intelligent man, after all. Hawking seems to have a deep admiration for the physicists he writes about, as many of them came up with principles he would later use to further his career. Hawking also describes many of his colleagues. He is always admirable to those that have helped further the subject of astrophysics in the last century and seems to enjoy working with these people. All of them have a want to make sense of life and the universe. Unfortunately, they will all be dead before we are technologically able to figure it out.
2. It's hard to describe two people mentioned in the book as they weren't really described in great detail. They were all extremely smart people. If you think that reading about and trying learn these complex theories is difficult, imagine being the one who created them. What all of these people have in common is that they will be remembered forever. Hawking does a great job at making you feel like he knew these people. I mean obviously he never met Isaac Newton or Galileo Galilei, but he seems to know a lot about their work and motivation.
3. These people are interesting enough to write about because they all make scientific discoveries that are either still used today or are the basis of something that is used today.
Style
1. The author used more of a journalistic style where he focused straight on the facts and explained how they related to the subject he was discussing. You have to understand that the part of this book with characters in it was largely based on historical figures. He used these historical figures and stories about these people to explain how complex theories worked sand how they are applicable today.
2. The author does not really focus on describing the appearance of his characters, he is more interested in describing what they contributed to astrophysics and how it relates to the subject of the book. These choices kind of create an atmosphere that is dull to read. There are no real characters that you "like" because none of them are developed. The book was not supposed to be one that is telling a story of character's lives, however, it is just purely informational.
3. Right from the start you can tell the author loves the subject that the book is about. He in fact tells us his background in the subject matter and how his whole life has been devoted to it. This creates a tone of understanding, he understands what he is writing about and you call tell by the way he writes. If you've ever tried to explain something complex to a 5 year old, you know what I am talking about. He does this except in a way of explaining to a grown person without a background in the subject. The book creates a mood of learning. There is no reason to read this book other than to learn about astrophysics. He therefore creates a type of environment where you want to learn more, its hard to explain.
4. The author is IN LOVE with the subject. I would believe it if he considered himself asexual and his one true love was astrophysics. All jokes aside, he is meant to do what he does. He enjoys discovering things and teaching them to other people, it doesn't hurt that he is a freaking genius. The reason he wrote the piece is probably to get a wider variety of people interested in the subject and to make it less taboo. A lot of what he talks about in the book contradicts thoughts of a creator but he wants everyone to be able to read the book and take some kind of meaning out of it.
5. The author of the book becomes a name dropper. He mentions so many historical scientists that you have no choice other than to look up who they are. Sure, he gives a brief definition of who they are/were but leaves you with a large enough interest to look them up outside of the reading. I could look up any of the people he mentioned in the book and read extensively about who they are/were. This helped me gain a better understanding of who these darn scientists were that have tortured me by creating complex theories.
Enduring Memory
I expect to remember many things from this book. I HOPE to remember most of the things that were discussed but I know I won't always remember the theory of relativity or quantum mechanics. I will, however, remember simple things like the infinite expansion of our universe. I will also remember things Hawking said about God and why his existence is really doubtful. In meetings with the Catholic church, he was asked to help them decide where the church should lay its laws for creationism. They believed that they could set the time of creation at the big bang and that would still allow for the existence of a God, he reluctantly agreed. He knew in his head that this explanation was very doubtful, but went along with it anyway. This book in a way relates to the subject we are covering in class at the moment, the value of life. If what Hawking says is true, there is no life after death, why not live your life to the fullest? This gives some people no reason to live, but I believe it should give people EVERY reason to live. If you know that these 30, 50, 70 years were the only ones you will ever live, why not enjoy your life and make it great? Do not dwell in the past or worry about your future, after all, Hawking was told that his time of death was sometime back in the 60's. He did not expect to live very much longer after his diagnosis with Lou Gehrig's disease. This did not deter him from gaining his degree and pursuing a career in astrophysics. He can be a lesson to us all that if life puts you down, get back up, tell it to screw off and live life to the fullest.
No comments:
Post a Comment