Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe - Softcover

Cham, Jorge; Whiteson, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593423038 ISBN 13: 9780593423035

Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

"Delightful, funny, and yet rigorous and intelligent: only Jorge and Daniel can reach this exquisite balance." —Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Helgoland

You’ve got questions: about space, time, gravity, and the odds of meeting your older self inside a wormhole. All the answers you need are right here.

As a species, we may not agree on much, but one thing brings us all together: a need to know. We all wonder, and deep down we all have the same big questions. Why can’t I travel back in time? Where did the universe come from? What’s inside a black hole? Can I rearrange the particles in my cat and turn it into a dog?

Researcher-turned-cartoonist Jorge Cham and physics professor Daniel Whiteson are experts at explaining science in ways we can all understand, in their books and on their popular podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe. With their signature blend of humor and oh-now-I-get-it clarity, Jorge and Daniel offer short, accessible, and lighthearted answers to some of the most common, most outrageous, and most profound questions about the universe they’ve received.

This witty, entertaining, and fully illustrated book is an essential troubleshooting guide for the perplexing aspects of reality, big and small, from the invisible particles that make up your body to the identical version of you currently reading this exact sentence in the corner of some other galaxy. If the universe came with an FAQ, this would be it.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jorge Cham is the cartoonist behind the popular online comic Piled Higher and Deeper (a.k.a. PHD Comics). He holds a PhD in robotics from Stanford University and is a former instructor and research associate at Caltech.
 
Daniel Whiteson is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, and a fellow of the American Physical Society. He earned his PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley and is an active researcher, using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to search for exotic new particles.

Together they are the authors of We Have No Idea, hosts of the podcast Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, and creators of the animated PBS series Elinor Wonders Why.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

A Frequently Asked Introduction

 

Everyone has questions

It's an inherent part of being human. As a species, we may not agree on much: politics, favorite sports team, best place to get a taco at twelve a.m. But one thing brings us all together: a need to know. We all wonder, and deep down we all have the same questions.

 

Why can't I travel back in time? Is there another version of me out there? Where did the universe come from? How long are humans going to be around? And who eats tacos at twelve a.m. anyway?

 

Fortunately, we have answers.

 

Science has made incredible progress over the last few hundred years, and there's a lot we can say about some very fundamental questions about the universe. There are, of course, still huge mysteries (see our previous book, We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe), but for our species, things in the understanding-the-universe department seem to be going in the right direction. So much so that we felt it was time that somebody compiled a list of easy-to-read, cartoon-laden answers to some of humanity's most frequently asked questions.

 

In this book, we'll explore answers to some of the deepest and most existential questions that people can ask about themselves, the planet, and the nature of reality itself. Have you ever wondered why aliens haven't visited us (assuming they haven't)? Or whether you are truly unique, or just a preprogrammed simulation in some alien video game? Do you stay up at night, wondering if life after death is possible? In your hands are answers to all of these questions.

 

Each chapter covers a frequently asked question, hopefully revealing in the process some mind-blowing truth about our amazing universe. Think of this book as a primer for your next cocktail party, or as a quick, fascinating read while you sit on the toilet (thankfully, we made each chapter fairly short).

 

You might wonder what makes us qualified to answer these questions. Rest assured that we have that utmost of qualifications to be authorities on a given topic: we have a podcast.

 

In our humbly titled, twice-weekly audio program, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, we cover topics ranging from microwaves to intergalactic phenomena to hypothetical fundamental particles.

 

But it's answering questions from listeners that really inspired us to write this book. For us, that's one of the most exciting parts of having a podcast. Nothing brightens our day more than opening our in-box and reading a thoughtful question from a curious listener.

 

And questions we definitely get! The question askers vary in age (nine to ninety-nine), occupation, and location. You might be surprised at the amazing questions that a nine-year-old from Devonshire can have about the observable universe.

 

It seems that asking questions and the desire to know is in our hearts. Many would say that wondering about the nature of our cosmos and our place in it is one of the joys of being alive. Of course, it might be frustrating to not know the answers right away, or to only end up with more questions (as in some of the answers in this book), but there's power in just asking the questions.

 

You see, asking questions supposes that it's possible to find the answers, which we believe is an act of hope. What could be more hopeful than believing that the universe and all its wondrous mysteries can one day be unraveled and understood?

 

So join us as we plug into the collective curiosity of your fellow humans and take a dive into the questions that frequently stump them. The answers will sometimes be surprising, and they might challenge your view of the universe. Other times the answers will be agonizingly incomplete because they push up against the edge of human knowledge.

 

In all cases, just remember that most of the fun is in asking the question.

 

Enjoy!

 

PS: Don't forget to flush.

 

Why Can't I Travel Back in Time?

 

Actually, who said you can't travel back in time?

 

It's a very common wish to be able to travel back in time. Who among us wouldn't want to go back and talk to famous figures in history, or watch important moments happen in person? You could figure out who really killed JFK or what ended the dinosaurs.

 

More practically, it would be great to go back in time for smaller stuff, like fixing a mistake you made. If you spilled coffee on your pants, you could go back in time and . . . not spill it. If you said something to your boss you now regret, just go back and not say it. If you ordered a pizza with pineapple on it and then realized that it's actually gross, you could go back and order a real pizza. It'd be like having an undo button (the equivalent of Ctrl+Z, or Command+Z for Mac snobs) for the universe.

 

And yet, so far, scientists have not built such a device. The past remains unchangeable. Time is still our great enemy, and it seems we are doomed to live forever in regret about our past mistakes. There are no do-overs in this universe.

 

But why is that? Why does it seem like we can change the future but not the past? Is there a deep law of physics that makes time travel impossible, or is it just a matter of solving a hard technical problem? And what's the difference anyway?

 

Well, you might be pleasantly surprised to learn that time travel has not actually been ruled out by physicists. It actually is technically possible to go back in time. It doesn't work the way you've seen in movies, but it might not be impossible to build a rewind button. In fact, at the end of this chapter we describe a brand-new, physicist-approved idea for time travel.

 

So strap on your time machine goggles, prepare your hoverboard and DeLoreans, because we are about to answer that timeless question: Why can't I travel back in time . . . yet?

 

Practical Versus Possible Versus

Not Impossible

 

First, let's clarify what we mean when we ask if something is "possible." It depends on who you ask.

 

If you ask an engineer whether something like time travel is possible, they will say yes if they think they can build a time machine for less than a trillion dollars and do it in less than a decade.

 

But if you ask a physicist whether something is possible, they look at the question differently. A physicist will say something is possible if they don't know of a law of physics that prevents it.

 

For example:

 

Since this is a book about physics and the universe, we take the physicist's point of view. That means that our goal in this chapter is to figure out whether time travel breaks any laws of the universe, not whether it would take 14.7 bazillion dollars and hundreds of years to make it real. We trust that once the physicists declare it possible, the engineers will eventually figure out a way to make it practical. Then the next step is for them to hand it off to the software people, who can code an app for it ("Siri, unspill my coffee").

 

To figure out if time travel can be physicist-approved, first we need to think about time the way physicists do. Time is a very slippery subject, one that has confused and baffled people for a long . . . well, time. Basically, physics thinks about time as the thing that allows the universe to change. It's the flow, the motion, the way that then turns into now. It's what orders and organizes a series of still photos into a smooth movie.

 

Because the universe does seem to flow smoothly. It doesn't just jump wildly from one moment to a dramatically different...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593423038
• ISBN 13: 9780593423035
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Anja's; service@anja-karge.de; ; Von-Gumppenberg-Str. 94; Pöttmes; 86554; Deutschland