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Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension

Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension

List Price: $35.00
Your Price: $35.00
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good, yet extremely speculative
Review: As someone who has had the pleasure to meet Mr. Kaku (he is a former professor), I know firsthand that the man is not only an unparalleled scientist, but one of the wittiest teachers to walk this earth. His brilliance in academia lies in the fact that he's not only able to dissect the most complicated notions in such a way that lay people can understand it, but he's apt to make it fun as well. Thus, I bought this book with high expectations and, although I was not disappointed, I did feel that the author's theories tend to defy common sense in a non-scientific sort of way.

Although the book masterfully covered the areas of astronomy and quantum physics, alas, the so-called superstring theory went too far. Like another reviewer who wanted the numbers behind the theories, I wanted the logic behind the theories because despite scientists' tendency to break down the walls of common sense, all science needs logic in order to function--otherwise experiments could never! be replicated. In short, the book is great as long as you're willing to take the superstring theory with a grain of salt.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I would have rated it 6 stars.
Review: I picked this book up from the library by mistake. But it wasn't a mistake I would regret. This book was excellent. I'd recomend it to anyone with an intrest in science (physics). I have since bought the book and barrowed it to 4 of my friends (the ones that are interested in thaht type of thing). They have all loved it too...What more can I say?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting, but hand-waving and vague.
Review: The concepts that underline this book are very interesting, and quite a lot has been written on them in the popular and not-so-popular press. Michio Kaku aims his book squarely at the 'popular science' market. There is no maths in the book, and not an awful lot of physics either. It is a book written to fascinate, and as such it does well, but in my opinion it does not delve deeply enough for the discerning reader. For instance, we don't even get a glance of the maths behind Kaku's ideas. What is really needed in this area is a book called something like 'Elementary String Theory', or 'Strings for the Mediocre Physicist'. This would allow students and other interested parties to have a look at the maths (which I am assured is not too bad) and the deeper concepts (derived from classical mechanics) that lie behind this fascinating area of Physics.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A lucid account of higher physics
Review: Kaku has struck just the right balance between solid theory, analogy, and narrative. The book is written in a way that allows the reader to become completely absorbed in this mind blowing area without becoming too stumped on theoretical complications. It doesn't pretend to provide a full explanation for everything it describes, and it is here that the book excels. It provides an excellent spring board for further exploration of the various topics.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book contains what I call the WOW FACTOR
Review: After hearing Michio Kaku on a national radio show, I opted to pick up this book and see what he had to say. This books contains a great deal of theory and is written in such a way that it is easily understood. Although parts of the book can be a challenge to fully comprehend, I can at least say that my ignorance and boundry of understanding was rearranged.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good, in-deapth and interesting!
Review: This is a book that I read and enjoyed the whole way through. I think that anyone that likes the subject would love this book. It makes everything so easy to understand and fun to learn about. I think that this is a good addition to anyones physics book collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You don't have to be a rocket scientest to understand this.
Review: Kaku does a good job of explaining the basics of the different mechanics of modern day thoughts about quantum theroy... While this book does contain a great deal of speculation, its more like Kaku invites us all into a group of scientists and fills us in on all the "gossip", the speculations that are out there being proven or disproved right now. If you want a book to introduce you to quantum theroy, hyperspace, and space-time, Kaku's may just be the best one out there. And from this book it is much easier to move on to Hawking and the other big brains of therotical physics...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quantum Reality for the rest of us...
Review: Absolutely fabulous! Finally an explanation for the average idiot. Dr. Kaku's narrative explains just how shocking and critical this type of theory is to all of humankind.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent translation of technical physics for the non-techi
Review: This author is fabulous at explaining the history of physics and where is now. He also explains technical issues of physics in a simplified manner. Enjoyable to read. This is one physicist with a sense of humor!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: not worth the money
Review: This book suffers from so many flaws it should be taken as a compliment to Kaku that I finished it. First, the style, while enthusiastic, is a bit murky at times; this is not helped by the excessive length. Further, this is a cheesy popularization of physics in that it is more of a "wow isn't physics weird" than a cohesive explanation of physics in general.

Worse, however, is the anecdotal quality of most of the book; an entire chapter is devoted to summarizing one of Asimov's books. Puh-lease! If you can't do better than that, Kaku, stop writing books like this. The worst part of the book is that little of it is actually an exposition about multi-dimensional approaches to physics; the beginning of the book has zero to do with physics, and the end has nothing to do with multi-dimensional physics and everything to do with social and political issues, science fiction speculation, and so forth.

The -only- chapters of this book worth reading are the ones on superstring theory, which are too short and inadequate as they are. Certainly his brief surveys of QT and GR are completely worthless except to further confuse the reader. If he'd spent more time in this book on actual scientific theory and not gushing, I would've been impressed; but 340+ pages for this felt like a big waste of time and money. Sure, this is sour grapes, but I won't make the mistake of buying another of Kaku's books; borrow this from the library and read the chapters on superstring theory, but do nothing more.

I am sure Kaku is a brilliant guy: he certainly makes it clear, in one of his many anecdotes, that he was no ordinary high schooler. I can only hope his other books, which I haven't read, are better than this one.


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