Greetings,
Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction
Paul J. Nahin.
Question: Do you read and have any commentaries on this book or any texts about or of this book, which you could to share with me/us? Is it really a good book? I don't read it yet...;P
Sorry for my bad English, please... I do not speak/write your language very well...
Hugs
,
Marcelo.
------------
Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction
Paul J. Nahin P. J. Nahin
Format: Hardcover, 2nd ed., 628pp.
ABOUT THIS ITEM
From The Publisher
"Time Machines" takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the intriguing theories of scientists and the far-flung imaginations of writers. It explores the ideas of time travel from the first account in English literature to the latest theories of physicists such as Kip Thorne and Igor Novikov. 75 illus.
FROM THE BOOK
Table of Contents
A Sample of Things to Come
Foreword
What's New in the Second Edition
Prologue to the First Edition
Acknowledgments to the First Edition
Ch. 1 An Overview of Time Travel 1
The Mystery of Time Travel 1
Machineless Time Travel Without Dreams or Drugs 13
Time Travel by Machine 18
H. G. Wells - Why His Time Machine Won't Work 22
Traveling to the Future 25
Traveling to the Past 30
Who Else Might Be Interested in Time Travel 35
Some Problems 40
Backward in Time - Can It Really Be Done? 43
The Problem of Paradoxes 47
The Fictional Origins of "Change the Past" 54
Ways to Avoid Paradoxes 57
Where Are All the Time Travelers? 66
Skepticism and Time Travelers 72
Einstein, Godel, and the Past 79
Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes, Singularities, and Time Travel 85
Tipler's Time Machine 92
Ch. 2 On the Nature of Time, Spacetime, and the Fourth Dimension 97
What Is Time? 98
Speculations on the Reality of Time 102
Has the Past Been for Ever? 109
Time and Clocks 115
Hyperspace and Wormholes 117
Monsters in Hyperspace 125
Space as the Fourth Dimension 130
Time as the Fourth Dimension 140
H. G. Wells on Space and Time 143
Spacetime and the Fourth Dimension 148
Spacetime, Omniscience, and Free Will 161
Does the Future Already Exist? Is the Past Still Around? 170
Ch. 3 The Arrows of Time 179
The Language of Time Travel 180
Does Time Have a Direction? 181
Cause and Effect 185
Backward Causation 191
What Does "Now" Mean? 198
Irreversibility 205
Worlds in Reverse 208
The Philosophy and Physics of Reversed Time 220
Entropy as Time's Arrow 227
Other Arrows of Time 236
Multidimensional Time 240
Ch. 4 Time Travel Paradoxes and (Some of) Their Explanations 245
Paradoxes 246
Early Science Fiction Speculations on Time Travel Paradoxes 251
Two Basic Time Travel Paradoxes 256
Can the Present Change the Past? Can the Past Be Un-Done? 259
Changing the Past vs. Affecting It 269
Why Can't a Time Traveler Kill His Grandfather? 285
Quantum Mechanics and Time Travel 294
Causal Loops 304
Sexual Paradoxes 319
Maxwell's Equations and Advanced Effects 323
Communication with the Past 327
Wheeler and Feynman and Their Bilking Paradox 332
Absorber Theory and Signaling to the Past 336
Tachyonic Signals, Spooky Actions, and the Bell Antitelephone 342
Epilogue 355
Notes and References 367
Tech Notes
1 What Time Is Now? 415
2 Time Dilation via the Photon Clock 423
3 The Lorentz Transformation 429
4 Spacetime Diagrams, Light Cones, Metrics, and Invariant Intervals 439
5 Proper Time, Curved World Lines, and the Twin Paradox 459
6 A High-Speed Rocket Is a One-Way Time Machine to the Future 467
7 Superluminal Speeds, Backward Time Travel, and Warp Drives, or Faster-Than-Light Into the Past 475
8 Backward Time Travel According to Godel and Tipler 489
9 Wormhole Time Machines 497
10 "Solving" the Einstein Gravitational Field Equations, Unphysical Mass-Energy, and the Cosmic String Time Machine 527
11 Time and Gravity 537
Glossary of Important Terms and Concepts 545
Bibliography 557
Bibliographic Adieu 618
Index
Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction
Paul J. Nahin.
Question: Do you read and have any commentaries on this book or any texts about or of this book, which you could to share with me/us? Is it really a good book? I don't read it yet...;P
Sorry for my bad English, please... I do not speak/write your language very well...
Hugs
Marcelo.
------------
Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction
Paul J. Nahin P. J. Nahin
Format: Hardcover, 2nd ed., 628pp.
ABOUT THIS ITEM
From The Publisher
"Time Machines" takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the intriguing theories of scientists and the far-flung imaginations of writers. It explores the ideas of time travel from the first account in English literature to the latest theories of physicists such as Kip Thorne and Igor Novikov. 75 illus.
FROM THE BOOK
Table of Contents
A Sample of Things to Come
Foreword
What's New in the Second Edition
Prologue to the First Edition
Acknowledgments to the First Edition
Ch. 1 An Overview of Time Travel 1
The Mystery of Time Travel 1
Machineless Time Travel Without Dreams or Drugs 13
Time Travel by Machine 18
H. G. Wells - Why His Time Machine Won't Work 22
Traveling to the Future 25
Traveling to the Past 30
Who Else Might Be Interested in Time Travel 35
Some Problems 40
Backward in Time - Can It Really Be Done? 43
The Problem of Paradoxes 47
The Fictional Origins of "Change the Past" 54
Ways to Avoid Paradoxes 57
Where Are All the Time Travelers? 66
Skepticism and Time Travelers 72
Einstein, Godel, and the Past 79
Quantum Mechanics, Black Holes, Singularities, and Time Travel 85
Tipler's Time Machine 92
Ch. 2 On the Nature of Time, Spacetime, and the Fourth Dimension 97
What Is Time? 98
Speculations on the Reality of Time 102
Has the Past Been for Ever? 109
Time and Clocks 115
Hyperspace and Wormholes 117
Monsters in Hyperspace 125
Space as the Fourth Dimension 130
Time as the Fourth Dimension 140
H. G. Wells on Space and Time 143
Spacetime and the Fourth Dimension 148
Spacetime, Omniscience, and Free Will 161
Does the Future Already Exist? Is the Past Still Around? 170
Ch. 3 The Arrows of Time 179
The Language of Time Travel 180
Does Time Have a Direction? 181
Cause and Effect 185
Backward Causation 191
What Does "Now" Mean? 198
Irreversibility 205
Worlds in Reverse 208
The Philosophy and Physics of Reversed Time 220
Entropy as Time's Arrow 227
Other Arrows of Time 236
Multidimensional Time 240
Ch. 4 Time Travel Paradoxes and (Some of) Their Explanations 245
Paradoxes 246
Early Science Fiction Speculations on Time Travel Paradoxes 251
Two Basic Time Travel Paradoxes 256
Can the Present Change the Past? Can the Past Be Un-Done? 259
Changing the Past vs. Affecting It 269
Why Can't a Time Traveler Kill His Grandfather? 285
Quantum Mechanics and Time Travel 294
Causal Loops 304
Sexual Paradoxes 319
Maxwell's Equations and Advanced Effects 323
Communication with the Past 327
Wheeler and Feynman and Their Bilking Paradox 332
Absorber Theory and Signaling to the Past 336
Tachyonic Signals, Spooky Actions, and the Bell Antitelephone 342
Epilogue 355
Notes and References 367
Tech Notes
1 What Time Is Now? 415
2 Time Dilation via the Photon Clock 423
3 The Lorentz Transformation 429
4 Spacetime Diagrams, Light Cones, Metrics, and Invariant Intervals 439
5 Proper Time, Curved World Lines, and the Twin Paradox 459
6 A High-Speed Rocket Is a One-Way Time Machine to the Future 467
7 Superluminal Speeds, Backward Time Travel, and Warp Drives, or Faster-Than-Light Into the Past 475
8 Backward Time Travel According to Godel and Tipler 489
9 Wormhole Time Machines 497
10 "Solving" the Einstein Gravitational Field Equations, Unphysical Mass-Energy, and the Cosmic String Time Machine 527
11 Time and Gravity 537
Glossary of Important Terms and Concepts 545
Bibliography 557
Bibliographic Adieu 618
Index