The Labyrinth of Time Introducing the Universe

by Lockwood, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780199249954
• ISBN10: 0199249954
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780191622694
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780199217267
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details
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Summary

Modern physics has revealed our knowledge of the universe as a much stranger place than we could have imagined. The puzzle at the center of our understanding of the universe is time. Michael Lockwood takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the nature of things. He investigates philosophical questions about the past, present, and future, our experience of time, and the possibility of time travel. And he provides the most careful, lively, and up-to-date introduction to the physics of time and the structure of the universe. His aim is not just to boggle the mind, but to lead the reader towards an understanding of the science and philosophy.

Author Biography

Michael Lockwood is a Fellow of Green College, Oxford

Table of Contents

1. Two Concepts of Time	1	(22)
2. Time and Space: A Marriage is Arranged	23	(29)
3. Taking Space-Time Seriously	52	(19)
4. From Flat to Curved Space-Time	71	(19)
5. Weaving the Cosmic Tapestry	90	(34)
6. Closed Timelike Curves: Science Fact or Science Fiction?	124	(31)
7. Classical Time Travel: The Toils of Paradox	155	(23)
8. Hamilton's Legacy: Physical Systems and their State Spaces	178	(9)
9. Time Asymmetry and the Second Law	187	(34)
10. Entropy, Electrodynamics, and the Role of Gravity	221	(12)
11. 'Drawn through Life Backwards'	233	(15)
12. The Unyielding Past	248	(9)
13. The Emergence of Order	257	(25)
14. From Quantum Jumps to Schrödinger's Cat	282	(40)
15. Schrödinger's Time-Traveller	322	(9)
16. Space, Time, and Quantum Gravity: Physics at the Frontier	331	(34)
17. The Time of our Lives	365	(18)
References	383	(16)
Index	399