Universe and the cosmic fates that may befall us. Hawking realized that a full understanding of the universe's birth, as well as a determination of its end, will not be attained until the macrocosm is joined with the microcosm inĪs the title implies, ''A Brief History of Time'' is a succinct review of this challenging task, providing the reader with a jaunty overview of key cosmological ideas, past and present - including multidimensional space, the inflationary Hawking, who occupies the Lucasian chair of mathematics at Cambridge University in England (as Sir Isaac Newton did), has been attempting to accomplish The next triumph in physics will arrive when these two seemingly diverse provinces are connected. In this view, the earth remains in orbit simply because it is caught in the indentation our massive sun makes in space. Nature became a game of probability.Īt the same time, over the vast distances between stars and galaxies, Einstein's theory of general relativity instructed us that gravity, the weakest of nature's forces, is best described as a geometric effect, a curvature Researchers learned that events within that minuscule realm do not flow smoothly and gradually rather, they change abruptly and discontinuously. Quantum mechanics replaced surety with uncertainty. At the level of atoms and nuclear particles,

Both upheavals forced physicists to adopt new ways of thinking at each end of the distance scale. The history of physics in the 20th century is a tale of two revolutions - general relativity and quantum mechanics. $18.95.Ī BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME From the Big Bang to Black Holes. LEAD: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME From the Big Bang to Black Holes.īy Stephen W. Section 7, Column 1 Book Review Deskīy NARCIA BARTUSIAK Marcia Bartusiak's most recent book is ''Thursday's Universe.'' April 3, 1988, Sunday, Late City Final Edition

Hawking a brief history of time