The Arrow of Time: The Quest to Solve Science’s Greatest Mystery: The Quest to Solve Science's Greatest Mysteries (Flamingo S.) - Softcover

Coveney, Peter; Highfield, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006544622 ISBN 13: 9780006544623

Publisher: Flamingo, 1991

Synopsis

In this book physical chemist Dr Peter Coveney and award-winning science journalist Dr Roger Highfield have questioned our understanding of science with their humorous reinterpretation of the most profound aspect of time - why it points from the past to the future. The author's challenge to scientific preconceptions about the irreversibility of time is designed to link apparently irreconcilable features of science, from Einstein's obsession with causality to chaos theory, from the cause of jet lag to the Monday morning feeling.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In 'The Arrow of Time' physical chemist Dr Peter Coveney and award-winning science journalist Dr Roger Highfield have shaken the foundations of our understanding of science with their engrossing, controversial and engagingly humorous reinterpretation of the most profound aspect of time – why it points from the past to the future, like an arrow. Their highly accessible challenge to scientific preconceptions about the irreversibility of time is set to become a classic in linking apparently irreconcilable features of science, from Einstein's obsession with causality to chaos theory, from the cause of jet lag to that Monday morning feeling.

"I warmly welcome this book, which is written on a high scientific level while being accessible to a wide public."
PROFESSOR ILYA PRIGOGINE, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1977

"A rare combination of intellect and descriptive power... 'The Arrow of Time' is in the best traditions of scientific argument and the effort of absorbing it will be well rewarded"
DR PETER POCKLEY, 'Financial Review'

"This is an important book... I heartily commend this volume"
JOHN LAURENT, 'New Scientist'

From the Inside Flap:

ry, the subject of time has become an area of serious inquiry for science. Theories that contain time as a simple quantity form the basis of our understanding of many scientific disciplines, yet the debate rages on: why does there seem to be a direction to time, an arrow of time pointing from past to future?

In The Arrow of Time, a major bestseller in England, Dr. Peter Coveney, a research scientist, and award-winning journalist Dr. Roger Highfield, demonstrate that the commonsense view of time agrees with the most advanced scientific theory. Time does in fact move like an arrow, shooting forward into what is genuinely unknown, leaving the past immutably behind. The authors make their case by exploring three centuries of science, offering bold reinterpretations of Newton's mechanics, Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, and advancing the insights of James Gleick's Chaos.

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0006544622
• ISBN 13: 9780006544623
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384