I enjoyed this book and found that it helped to clarify the paradoxes discussed in this book (see below). In doing so, it also provided a good overview of many of the conundrums that relativity theory and quantum mechanics have created. I give this book 5-stars and recommend it to people, like myself (a retired research metallurgist with a long ago exposure to modern phyaics in graduate school and further reading since I have retired), which have some understanding of the ideas presented in this book, but with the reservation that those with little or no background in the subjects covered are likely to view the book less positively.
What is in this book-
This book discusses the most important paradoxes created by modern physics, plus two introductory chapters that discusses some logic paradoxes. The chapters and their content are as follows:
Chapter 1 – The Game Show Paradox – Monty Hall and how his knowledge of what is behind the three curtains alters the odds when he lets a contestant switch from their initial choice to another one.
Chapter 2 – Achilles and the Tortoise – Classical paradoxes and how they are resolved.
Chapter 3 – Olbers’ Paradox – Why is the sky not covered with stars, making the nighttime as bright as the daytime? The physics here is about the finite nature of the visible universe and the ideas concerning the beginning and expansion of the universe.
Chapter 4 – Maxell’s Demon – The physics of the second law of thermodynamics is discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 5 – The Pole in the Barn Paradox - Special relativity and length contraction are discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 6 – The Paradox of Twins – This chapter focuses on special relativity and time dilation.
Chapter 7 – The Grandfather Paradox – This chapter focuses on relativity theory and the possibility of travel back in time that the theory allows for.
Chapter 8 – The Paradox of Laplace’s Demon – This chapter deals with the ideas of a mechanically deterministic universe and free will.
Chapter 9 – The Paradox of Schrodinger’s Cat - The basic paradox of Quantum Mechanics and the question of entanglement is discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 10 – Fermi’s Paradox - Fermi asked - if there are aliens from other planets why haven’t they visited (at least as far as most people are concerned) or have given any indication of their existence? The physics is about the possibilities of life on other planets.
Chapter 11 - Remaining questions – These are not paradoxes, but questions which the author thinks will be answered in his lifetime, answered but not in the foreseeable future and questions that may never be answered. This chapter is only 6-pages long and only lists the questions, but does not discuss them.
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- Amazon CustomerReviewed in India on August 23, 2018
The greatest q&a book i've ever read
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2023
Explain without dumbing down
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P aus MReviewed in Germany on September 18, 2020
"So, where is everybody?" (S. 256)
