Welcome to the Universe

This is an interesting book, both in its content and in its concept. Three prominent astrophysicists have written a textbook on the subject of astrophysics for students at Princeton with little or no prior training in the physics and math upon which the subject is based. Based on the success of the course, the book is now being marketed to the general reading public, which is a noble experiment. I have a lifetime of prior experience in the type of math and physics upon which astrophysics is based, but no experience of applying that math and physics to the problems discussed in this book. I can imagine that a Princeton student, given some examples and some exercises (not included in the book), could work through most of the math at the level discussed, and the subject is sufficiently interesting to motivate them to do so (I found myself wanting to do this.) With my background, I could understand how it should be possible to work through the calculations that they described to “measure” the composition and temperatures of stars, the distances to distant galaxies, etc. However, I suspect that readers without at least a BS in Physics sort of background will feel that they are being asked to take a lot on faith, despite the authors’ efforts to the contrary. However, this is a breathtaking and profusely illustrated story of how stars and planets and galaxies are formed, evolve and die, of how the (perhaps multiple) universe is expanding, of the necessity of “dark” matter/energy, of the implications of relativity, the geometry of space-time and of how we have determined all of this.

I'm taking my time reading this book to make it last as long as possible. Dr Tyson is about the best astronomy teacher there is. I was already a huge fan and this book didn't disappoint me. I've watched all of his videos and I've been reading quite a bit, so I chose this astronomy text for deeper understanding. It's perfect for my current level of understanding. It's written in a way that is both entertaining and comprehensible. It's a rare talent to make complex topics easy to understand. Right away I knew I was in for a treat when he used McDonald's hamburgers to illustrate the reality of a number as large as 100 billion. I found that I can get even more out of the book by searching for videos on YouTube about the various topics. I had no idea that there were so many astronomers posting such excellent videos. Many thanks to Dr Tyson and his colleagues for giving me an invitation to the Universe and the wonderful people in it! It's a whole new reality for me!

I very much enjoyed this book, but with some caveats. The primary one is that there is quite a bit of math and much of it is advanced. What I think would be helpful is an easy way to read the book and skip the math - in the Kindle version this could be very easy - and I don't think the reader will lose anything substantial by doing so. Another caveat is regarding the chapter on the future of humanity: much (perhaps all) of what is said in speculative but it is not presented that way. I enjoyed the material but I did find it a little irritating that the author expressed such great confidence in his predictions and assumptions. Caveats aside, this is a fun book to read and I was eager to come back to it again and again. Neil's chapters are especially fun because of the humor, even if often corny. If a follow up book is published that updates this material I would want to read it.

This is a wonderfully written book for someone who is interested in astrophysics, but does not have the knowledge to understand more technical books that are written for physicists. Three authors have contributed to this book, all prominent astrophysicists. I just received my copy, with its beautiful dust jacket, and couldn’t wait to start reading it! The first section of the book is written by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who offers us a humorous approach to the vast subject of the universe. I only started reading the book yesterday, so I can’t as yet review the other authors, but from what I can tell by gleaning over the pages, it is impressive! I had originally been considering buying the audiobook version, but after reading comments that it was very difficult to understand “mathematical equations read out loud”, I decided to go for the printed version instead. I am so glad I did! As you can tell by my photos of a few sections of the book, there are color illustrations and diagrams, math equations, etc, that simply could not be relayed by words. Even if some pdf files are included with the audiobook version, I doubt that you would receive the quantity and quality of the illustrations in the actual physical book. I bought a “Used, Very Good” copy from Amazon Prime, but I would label it “Used, Like New.” It’s a pristine copy, dust jacket in mint condition! At $10.49, it was a bargain, considering that the book originally sold for $39.95, as shown on the inside of the cover! This book will offer you hours of fascinating information about the universe!

This is a very ambitious book: the Universe is an awesome and extremely interesting place. But how do you communicate this without piling on the math that shows how it works? I think the three co-authors have managed to balance the "wo - this is awesome!" part with at least passing references to the math that connects everything. This is entertaining but not extremely light reading. You can skip over the mathy parts and still learn a huge amount about the science that underlies our current understanding about the universe. But if you spend the time to read and try to understand the mathematical relationships, your understanding and appreciation will be that much greater. Keep in mind that this book is used as a textbook for non-science majors at Princeton, and is entertaining but by no means dumbed down to attract readers who think that anything beyond a few text messages is just too much. I wish this type of class was available when I went to college in the '70s. This is an ambitious and fantastic book.

A fascinating introduction to Astrophysics. The authors are academics who have translated their first year University course into plain English (or at least plain American), providing both a historical overview of key discoveries and developments with up to date explanations of our current understanding of the Universe, and discussion of the gaps in our knowledge. Some basic maths/physics are needed (I have A level Physics and still struggled in a few places - for example "we need to integrate the Planck function"!) but generally the principles behind the maths is fully explained and you don't have to delve too deeply into the equations unless you want to. On the other hand the way some basic physical principles can be derived purely from maths is a revelation - for example just two equations show that gravitational force does not depend on mass, a principle since proved empirically. A great read for anyone interested in current science.

Such a great book! I was a little nervous about whether I’d be able to understand everything as astrophysics is quite an intimidating subject. However, everything is so well explained that it made it seem very intuitive. I’m really glad I read it and recommend it to anyone interested. By the way, sorry if I made any mistakes (English isn’t my native language).

I ordered and paid for the hardcover version of the Welcome to the Universe textbook. What I got was the paperback of Welcome to the Universe...the Problem Book. Totally easy to mix up, amirite? At least they succeeded in putting a book in the envelope. I don't want to purchase from this seller again.

Die drei Autoren sind ausgezeichnete Erzähler. Jeder hat seinen eigenen Stil für sein eigenes Spezialgebiet. Wer schon immer einmal einen ausführlichen Überblick über das Universum haben wollte, wird hier nicht enttäuscht werden. Der Leser wird langsam aber konsequent von einfach bis komplex an die großen Themen des Kosmos herangeführt. Das Buch baut auf einer preisgekrönten Vorlesungsreihe für Nichtphysiker auf. Mit Nichtphysiker sind nun tatsächlich keine Physikexperten gemeint, was nicht etwa heißen soll, dass man nicht zumindest solides Schulwissen bezüglich Naturwissenschaften und Mathe haben darf. An einer Stelle wird E = mc2 tatsächlich mathematisch hergeleitet. Wer das wirklich verstehen will, muss schon mitrechnen wollen. Ich kenne jedoch kein Buch, das den Stoff so umfangreich und auch verständlich erklärt. Vom Urknall über Relativitätstheorie bis zur Quantenphysik wird alles recht ausführlich (für Nichtphysiker!) besprochen. Interessant dabei sind auch die historischen Abrisse über das zunehmende Verständnis von Physik und Astronomie in den letzten Jahrhunderten. Herausragende Persönlichkeiten, wie Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Einstein, Planck, Heisenberg, Hubbel, und die neueren Stars der Teilchenphysik sowie Quasarforschung werden vorgestellt. Wer solides Englisch hat, sollte da gut mitkommen. Es ist aber natürlich kein Roman, sondern ein Sachbuch. Nicht unbedingt etwas für die Lektüre kurz vor dem Einschlafen. Wer sich für Astronomie interessiert und da schon immer manche Sachen wissen wollte, wird nicht enttäuscht werden. Woher weiß man, wie weit entfernt die Sterne oder Galaxien sind? Woher weiß man aus welchen Elementen sie entstehen? Was besagt die spezielle Relativitätstheorie? Was die allgemeine? Woher weiß man das Alter des Universums? Dehnt e sich aus, oder zieht es sich wieder zusammen? Etc. pp. Entgegen anderer Bücher, die sich explizit der Quantenphysik widmen, ist hier der ganze Teilchenzoo noch überschaubar. Quarks und Strings, Multiversum, 11 Dimensionen usw werden natürlich auch kurz angerissen, aber da gibt es sicherlich ausführlichere Spezialliteratur (wenn das wirklich ein Nichtphysiker haarklein wissen will...) Allerdings werden natürlich auch einige nette Gedankenexperimente durchdiskutiert. Wie fühlt man sich, wenn man in ein schwarzes Loch stürzt? Und wie teilt man das dem Rest der Welt mit? Kann man durch die Zeit reisen? Und wenn, in welche Richtung (Vorwärts ist nix besonderes. Das machen die Astronauten der ISS schon lange.) Wenn man eine Uhr immer kleiner baut, erhält man ein schwarzes Loch (wenn ich das richtig verstanden habe...) usw. Fazit: Echt was dazu gelernt! Ein wertvolles und auch schönes Buch, das man gerne in die Hand nimmt. Top! Wer kein Englisch kann: bald erscheint es wohl auf deutsch.

Read it during my holiday, really informative.