MedVision ad

Brian Greene's "Elegant Universe" (1 Viewer)

M-turkey

Zoom Zoom
Joined
Jan 19, 2005
Messages
262
Location
Tuggeranong ACT
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
I have finally found a store that had a copy of this book!

Has anyone else read it? Or seen the SBS specials?
 

KFunk

Psychic refugee
Joined
Sep 19, 2004
Messages
3,323
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
I read it some time last year. I discovered the documentry [here http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/] after having read the book and I found they didn't have as much depth as the book but they did have some nice visualisations of what was being talked about. Greene is very good at expressing such complex concepts and has created a text that provides a good layman's understanding of these theories.

You should probably move this to the main part of the physics forum since the book also goes over the basics of relativity and this is just a generally good book for any physics student to read since it's fascinating and written in an entertaining way.
 

Will Hunting

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2004
Messages
214
Location
Carlton
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Caught the SBS series and loved it. Another great read is 'Quantum', by Jim Al-Khalili. It's outside the scope of the HSC course but is still definitely worth a peek.
 

m111

Define "cynical"
Joined
Sep 15, 2004
Messages
109
Location
Somewhere I shouldn't be
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
A top series! Brilliant information... but spoilt, I thought, by the Americanisms and love of over simplified analogies... sometimes it kinda lost its way a little! :D
 

zahid

Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman
Joined
Aug 8, 2003
Messages
1,567
Location
In here !
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
it was bloody tops...i luved all that string theory...so i ended up downloading the whole 2gig dvd from a torrent.
 

CJBrownie

New Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2004
Messages
12
Location
Central Coast
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
I saw the documentary on SBS........... I'd looked into string theory before that though. I thought it was pretty good.

I went to the bookshop to purchase Stephen Hawking's "The Universe in a Nutshell", and saw the "Elegant Universe" book, which I didn't realise they had and I might buy it later.
 

Xayma

Lacking creativity
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
5,953
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
m111 said:
yeah! shame we dont get to do string theory...
Too heavy on the mathematics and concepts to teach in High School Physics.
 

KFunk

Psychic refugee
Joined
Sep 19, 2004
Messages
3,323
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
:p. I felt I should draw attention to the google advertising on this page. I just found it slightly amusing:


You Like Quantum Physics?
Have The Extreme Wealth and Success You Desire In Six Easy Steps!
 

Newbie

is a roflcopter
Joined
May 17, 2003
Messages
3,670
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
haha i downloaded it too
and fuck i dont even do physics
and fuck im in uni
 

HQ_BUDDY

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2004
Messages
43
whats was the name of the shop that u got the elegant universe form i loved the documentary, actually i only seen half of the first part dam i forgot about the rest of it :(:(. oh well im really interested in the book of it, itll be in mored depth and ill like that.
:)
 

Xayma

Lacking creativity
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
5,953
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
You can get it from the PBS site.

Otherwise large online DVD shops should have it. You wouldnt be able to find it in shops.
 

M-turkey

Zoom Zoom
Joined
Jan 19, 2005
Messages
262
Location
Tuggeranong ACT
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
You can most probably order is through Dymocks. ( A good idea if you have a modem because you'll probably get it by mail faster)

I am surprised by how many people saw the show, even on the Limewire network there are around 75 hosts with each episode.
 

KFunk

Psychic refugee
Joined
Sep 19, 2004
Messages
3,323
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
If you were going to order somethign you'd be better off getting the book. It's much better than the series IMO and the series serves better as something for afterwards to help you visualize the concepts.
 

Antwan23q

God
Joined
Sep 12, 2004
Messages
294
Location
bally
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2006
I just downloaded the show and bought the book, its awesome as.
 

kurt.physics

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2007
Messages
840
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
I loved the TV series, I have watched it litrally 21 times. Havn't read the book, to busy reading 'first three minutes' (which i must also say is an interesting book on the origin and 'evolution' of our universe). But i did see in the Doccumentaries (Elegant Universe) that it was a bit dodgy (but most of it was alright). For example, in the second episode, strings the thing, it mentioned that the other 6 dimensions were wraped up and were really small (Calibu-Yau). But in the next episode it was implyed that these dimension were now massive (by saying that the membranes were floating in higher-dimensional space). This was most mis leading. It also mensioned that gravity was leaking out of our membrane, which is alright, but, theories proposed by Lisa Randall (Harvard professor) say that gravity is leaking off of a nother brane. This theory (Lisa Randalls) is believed to be more 'persuasive' so to speak as it explains more things (not to go into detail).

Also I found it interesting that it had not mensioned that we cant see these huge dimensions (in reference to the membranes and large dimensions) because the photon is chained to the membrane but instead said that we cant because we are linked to the brane.

Any way, does any one actually think that string theory is right (or on the right track). And who believes that the dimensions are on the Calibu-Yau or are super large?
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top