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Two Reviews: "God's Equation" and "Universe In A Nutshell"
I checked out two books from my library a few weeks ago and I'm done reading them: Amir D. Aczel's "God's Equation" and Stephen Hawking's "Universe In A Nutshell." I was really excited about reading my first book by Stephan Hawking, the great reviews and the fact that he is considered one of the greatest physicist of our time. The other book "God's Equation" I didn't even think I'd really get around to reading it. It looked good, but not amazing. Boy was I wrong about both of them! I was really disapointed in Hawking's book and I loved Aczel's book! Here are my offical reviews:
God's Equation by Amir D. Aczel
Education Level: May prove confusing for some laymen, a general understanding of cosmology is probably enough though.
Summary: Amir takes you through the development of Einstein's legendary theory of relativity and onward to modern cosmology. Written like a detective story from the point of view of the detective trying to solve the master equation of the universe. Einstein seems to be the center point, but its not all about him, credit is given to other great minds that helped create the marvious theory of relativity. Good outlines are given to Maxwell, Lorentz, Ricci-Curbastro and others, describing what they did, and why Einstein couldn't have discovered relativity without them. After you pass though Einstein's rein, you journey to current scientist and examine the expanding universe, grand unification and more. Then when you reach the end, the author brings you to today, where scientist continue to rely on Einstein's equations as the closest thing we have to one of "God's thoughts."
Comments: I definitely recommend this book for new comers in physics! And even if all this is old news to you, it a very fun book to read. Written like a dectective story of the universe.
Rating: 5/5
Universe In A Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
Education Level: Layman
Summary: The first few chapters give you a basic history of physics and cosmology. These first few chapters are written well and great for the layman or even the experienced. From those chapters Hawking branchs off into a few other topics, unconnected to one another. To state this frankly, Hawking expresses some of his speculations on the future of mankind and the universe along with some other stuff. Overall this book doesn't really have an over all message or topic. Ignoring the first chapters, this is just some of Hawking random thoughts on our world.
Comments: I was really disapointed with this book. I thought I would walk away enlightened from the reviews I've heard about Hawking. True, Hawking does explain a lot of complex ideas into humorous, easy to understand way. But as for the actual content of the book he stumbles. I'd recomment it for the layman and some people might find some of Hawking's personal speculations interesting. But all I can just tell you I was very thrilled with them.
Rating: 3/5
I checked out two books from my library a few weeks ago and I'm done reading them: Amir D. Aczel's "God's Equation" and Stephen Hawking's "Universe In A Nutshell." I was really excited about reading my first book by Stephan Hawking, the great reviews and the fact that he is considered one of the greatest physicist of our time. The other book "God's Equation" I didn't even think I'd really get around to reading it. It looked good, but not amazing. Boy was I wrong about both of them! I was really disapointed in Hawking's book and I loved Aczel's book! Here are my offical reviews:
God's Equation by Amir D. Aczel
Education Level: May prove confusing for some laymen, a general understanding of cosmology is probably enough though.
Summary: Amir takes you through the development of Einstein's legendary theory of relativity and onward to modern cosmology. Written like a detective story from the point of view of the detective trying to solve the master equation of the universe. Einstein seems to be the center point, but its not all about him, credit is given to other great minds that helped create the marvious theory of relativity. Good outlines are given to Maxwell, Lorentz, Ricci-Curbastro and others, describing what they did, and why Einstein couldn't have discovered relativity without them. After you pass though Einstein's rein, you journey to current scientist and examine the expanding universe, grand unification and more. Then when you reach the end, the author brings you to today, where scientist continue to rely on Einstein's equations as the closest thing we have to one of "God's thoughts."
Comments: I definitely recommend this book for new comers in physics! And even if all this is old news to you, it a very fun book to read. Written like a dectective story of the universe.
Rating: 5/5
Universe In A Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
Education Level: Layman
Summary: The first few chapters give you a basic history of physics and cosmology. These first few chapters are written well and great for the layman or even the experienced. From those chapters Hawking branchs off into a few other topics, unconnected to one another. To state this frankly, Hawking expresses some of his speculations on the future of mankind and the universe along with some other stuff. Overall this book doesn't really have an over all message or topic. Ignoring the first chapters, this is just some of Hawking random thoughts on our world.
Comments: I was really disapointed with this book. I thought I would walk away enlightened from the reviews I've heard about Hawking. True, Hawking does explain a lot of complex ideas into humorous, easy to understand way. But as for the actual content of the book he stumbles. I'd recomment it for the layman and some people might find some of Hawking's personal speculations interesting. But all I can just tell you I was very thrilled with them.
Rating: 3/5