Reviews for Universe

The average rating for Universe based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-23 00:00:00 Jane Goldman I wanted to firm up my knowledge of general astronomy, so I googled to find textbooks used in universities, picked this one, and read it front to back, doing the problems at the end of each chapter. It's extremely clear and logical in organization, comprehensive in scope, and easy to read. It is meant for college freshmen, physics-based, with free use of algebra, but no calculus. It does not presuppose any background in science beyond high school, and gives frequent tips, cautions, and reminders to help the reader out. It's darn close to the perfect textbook. And yet, in the second-last chapter (Cosmology), I came to things I couldn't understand: this "cosmic inflation" idea, where the universe increased in size by a factor of 10^50 or so in a tiny fraction of a second. It's supposed to neatly explain the current large-scale appearance and composition of the Universe, but what caused it? It's attributed to an "inflation field" that seems to be otherwise undetectable, but if you ask me that's no better than saying it "just happened." And inflation is supposed to have created matter because the inflation separated matter-antimatter virtual pairs (that constantly fill the Universe, popping in and out of existence within the Heisenberg uncertainty limit) before they could annihilate, causing them to take on permanent existence. So whatever happened to conservation of mass? And the four forces of nature are said to "unify" at the high energies of the early Universe, meaning that they produce the same result. How can that be when their strengths differ so greatly? And why does gravitation require a particle to convey it when it's produced by the curvature of space? Maybe someday another text will explain these things to me.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-10-05 00:00:00 Bonita Mona I learned a lot about current scientific thought on the universe and our solar system, its formation, nature, and laws of operation. There is a lot of satisfaction in learning about this. My knowledge about astonomy has grown. However, I feel we must balance our scientific thought with religious belief. Knowledge doesn't just come from what meets the eye; faith bears sway as well.