Time : a very short introduction / Jenann Ismael.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ismael, Jenann, 1968- author.

Series:

Very short introductions ; 684.

Very short introductions ; 684

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Time.

time.

Medical Subjects:

Time.

Physical Description:

xxii, 111 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 18 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Summary:

"What is time? What does it mean for time to pass? Is it possible to travel in time? What is the difference between the past and future? Until the work of Newton, these questions were purely topics of philosophical speculation. Since then we've learned a great deal about time, and its study has moved from a subject of philosophical reflection to instead became part of the subject matter of physics. This Very Short Introduction introduces readers to the current physical understanding of the direction of time, from the Second Law of Thermodynamics to the emergence of complexity and life. Jenann Ismael charts the line of development in physical theory from Newton, via Einstein's Theory of Relativity, to the current day. Einstein's innovations led to a vision of time very different from the familiar time of everyday sense. In this new vision, time is one of the dimensions in which the universe is extended alongside the spatial dimensions. The universe appears as a static block of events, in which there is no more a difference between past and future than there is between east and west. Discussing the controversy and philosophical confusion which surrounded the reception of this new vision, Ismael also covers the contemporary mixture of statistical mechanics, cognitive science, and phenomenology that point the way to reconciling the familiar time of everyday sense with the vision of time presented in Einstein's theories."--Amazon.com.

Contents:

Time until Newton

From space and time to spacetime : the era of Einstein

Philosophical implications of relativity

The arrow of time

The time of human experience

The big picture and new horizons.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 103-108) and index.

ISBN:

0198832664

9780198832669

OCLC:

1237397816