Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide

Rating:
Summary: GET THE BOOK AND BEGIN YOUR OWN TRAVEL!
Review: For over five years I've been a fond of classic physics, cuantic physics, cosmology and astrophysics. I've read the books of some of the greatest writers of these branches of science, among which I remember Stephen Hawking, Paul Davies, Roger Penrose, Albert Einstein, etc. All of these books are very complete if we talk about the information exposed by them, but they have a common characteristic (I don't know whether is a defect in fact), is highly recommendable to have a certain level of scientific knowledge in order to make good use of its content. The book featured by Clifford A. Pickover "Black Holes: A traveler's guide" is totally different to those that I've read before. Is a complete, funny and, overcoat, is easily understandable by anybody. At the beginning of each chapter there are presented dialogs (between the reader and an alien called Mr. Plex) with the purpose of giving the main idea of what is coming up next. In the same way, almost all chapters make reference to simple formulas that describe the most relevant aspects about the behavior of black holes. Besides the main subject (black holes), the author took charge of showing in a briefly manner another "not less important" subjects of astrophysics and cosmology. I had never understood many of the formulas presented until I read this book. When you begin to read it, you begin a journey to the marvelous structure of one of the strangest and most fascinating things in the whole universe, a black hole. Is the best book that I've ever seen about this topics and I believe that somebody difficultly overcome the clear, precise and funny style of writing of Clifford A. Pickover. GET THE BOOK AND BEGIN YOUR OWN TRAVEL!

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing and Entertaining
Review: I enjoyed this book. It was easy to get into and hard to put down. Don't get discouraged by the equations. I skipped over the calculation as all that interested me was the concepts which the author did well to get across. There was perhaps only a couple of sections I re-read and mainly because I was trying refresh them in my mind to relate them to sections later in the book. As a bonus there's also a cheesy little sidestory that while not exactly rife with tiwsts and turns does well to get across basic concepts in an amusing manner before delving into the knitty gritty of it. If you enjoy studying black holes buy this book. If you don't enjoy studying balck holes, well it'll look good on your coffe table with it's snazzy cover:)

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing and Entertaining
Review: I enjoyed this book. It was easy to get into and hard to put down. Don't get discouraged by the equations. I skipped over the calculation as all that interested me was the concepts which the author did well to get across. There was perhaps only a couple of sections I re-read and mainly because I was trying refresh them in my mind to relate them to sections later in the book. As a bonus there's also a cheesy little sidestory that while not exactly rife with tiwsts and turns does well to get across basic concepts in an amusing manner before delving into the knitty gritty of it. If you enjoy studying black holes buy this book. If you don't enjoy studying balck holes, well it'll look good on your coffe table with it's snazzy cover:)

Rating:
Summary: Happy trails....
Review: The term "black hole" was coined by the Princeton physicist John Archibald Wheeler. What, exactly, a black hole is (if there even is such a thing) has been a source of debate and confusion for decades. Clifford Pickover inserts you as the main character of this book. You are on a spaceship (complete with aliens) way the heck in the future & your ship is near a black hole. So, you & your friends decide to do a close (literally) study of the cosmic anomaly.

The story is entertaining & has many didactic features. Pickover also inserts some humor so as to make the book enjoyable as opposed to a dense treatise of rather complex mathematical concepts. Also, at the end of each chapter is a section called "The science behind the science fiction." It is a detailed account of what we presently know (or think we know) about the notions which were presented in the narrative.

And, the concepts are many. We learn of various weird things that happen in & near a black hole, such as time slowing, the "shrinking" of one's perspective due to the singularity & the mind-numbing gravitational power which is projected by black holes.....a gravity field so immense that the escape velocity exceeds light speed. We learn how black holes were predicted by Einstein's theory of Relativity as well as how the many principles of quantum mechanics come into the picture when one is attempting to understand the nature of singularities.

Much of this book is speculation, but it is educated speculation. The conjectures on what happens inside of a singularity, as well as the possiblity of wormholes which lead to other universes & dimensions is exciting & based on our best available current knowledge of the cosmos. As an added bonus, there is a chapter in the back of the book in which many of the world's leading cosmologists answer questions posed by the author on various topics about & related to black holes. There are also computer animation pictures of some of the more dazzling geometrical effects that are generated by black holes. For anyone who is planning to visit a black hole anytime soon, this book is a must.

Rating:
Summary: Happy trails....
Review: The term "black hole" was coined by the Princeton physicist John Archibald Wheeler. What, exactly, a black hole is (if there even is such a thing) has been a source of debate and confusion for decades. Clifford Pickover inserts you as the main character of this book. You are on a spaceship (complete with aliens) way the heck in the future & your ship is near a black hole. So, you & your friends decide to do a close (literally) study of the cosmic anomaly.

The story is entertaining & has many didactic features. Pickover also inserts some humor so as to make the book enjoyable as opposed to a dense treatise of rather complex mathematical concepts. Also, at the end of each chapter is a section called "The science behind the science fiction." It is a detailed account of what we presently know (or think we know) about the notions which were presented in the narrative.

And, the concepts are many. We learn of various weird things that happen in & near a black hole, such as time slowing, the "shrinking" of one's perspective due to the singularity & the mind-numbing gravitational power which is projected by black holes.....a gravity field so immense that the escape velocity exceeds light speed. We learn how black holes were predicted by Einstein's theory of Relativity as well as how the many principles of quantum mechanics come into the picture when one is attempting to understand the nature of singularities.

Much of this book is speculation, but it is educated speculation. The conjectures on what happens inside of a singularity, as well as the possiblity of wormholes which lead to other universes & dimensions is exciting & based on our best available current knowledge of the cosmos. As an added bonus, there is a chapter in the back of the book in which many of the world's leading cosmologists answer questions posed by the author on various topics about & related to black holes. There are also computer animation pictures of some of the more dazzling geometrical effects that are generated by black holes. For anyone who is planning to visit a black hole anytime soon, this book is a must.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book for General Readers
Review: This is an interesting combination of a science fiction short story written in the second person (odd, that) and a light series of lectures on the subject of black holes. There are computer programs to try, and the maths is easy to follow without any complicated vector operators. The story has an amusing twist at the end, and the whole work conveys a sense of wonder. Such a subject can hardly be expected to have any practical relevance, but the computer programs do give the dabbler in BASIC a change to have a go.