The Illustrated Brief History of Time, Updated and Expanded Edition Hardcover – October 1, 1996

For anyone looking for a great, comprehensible explanation of the current state of the theories driving today's physics, this is it. Hawking has taken everything from the early history of thinking about the universe, its laws and composition, to the latest developments on black holes and string theory and placed it in a remarkably lucid set of explanations that detail the concepts behind all the mathematics that is so intimidating to most. This book is written without a single equation or a single statement on the order of "From the above, it is obvious that..." Instead, we proceed from the (comparatively) simple concepts about the everyday observable world of gravity, planets, and stars, travel carefully along the historical path of scientific observations as they modify and enhance the simple theories till we reach the world of quantum mechanics, the big bang, wormholes, and Grand Unified Field Theories. Each concept is fully explained, and with this expanded second edition, many of the concepts are beautifully illustrated with drawings and photographs.And, possibly surprising to some people, as we enter the rarified air of today's theories, we see that the line between physics and philosophy is a very thin one, and ruminations about the origin of the Universe lead to discussions about God and fate. Here we see why Hawking is one of the premier physicists of today, as he obviously thinks in same kind of conceptual language that this book is written in, capable of looking at the meaning behind the mathematics and how it relates to us as humans.Physics students and engineers may not find very much new here, but even they may benefit from the clear thought lines presented here, forcing a look at the meaning behind all the esoteric symbols that are their everyday working fare.About the only quibble I had with this was Hawking's insistence on writing out very large/small numbers as million-million-million... While this was fine the first couple of times it becomes a little irritating in place of the standard 1,000,000... representation, or even better to use standard scientific notation.A great elucidation of some of the most complex theories of the day, theories seemingly unrelated to your everyday life, but which are in fact the bedrock upon which today's technological marvels are based, and with implications that catch the nether regions of religion and the questions we all have about the meaning of life and the universe.

I love watching podcasts on youtube about Physics and space. I decided to purchase this book as it has great reviews, and it did not disappoint! One thing I loved about this book is the visuals/images on each page (see attached a few examples). It really made it easy to understand these very complex ideas. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, regardless of previous knowledge, who has an interest in Physics.

This is a book dealing with complicated aspects of modern theoretical physics. It is impossible to review such a book a few days after receiving it. Ask me a year from now - possibly then I'll e able to write a review.

Paid for hardcover got the paper it seems. Great looking book though.

This is an amazing book. Hawking walks you through the evolution of philosophy and theories from the ground up. This is not a singularly-focused book either. In the beginning pages you delve into the history of ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, then are soon brought to topics such as the Big Bang theory, quantum theory, and time travel!In my opinion, it is a book that the layman can read to get a third-person understanding of the scientific marvels of our day and the history of many theories throughout the past. The explanations used may become foggy as one inexperienced in physics and science tries to comprehend what is being said, but that is to be expected from a book that delves into what this one does.If you’re yearning to solve physics problems like in a classroom, rigorously calculating how long it takes for a pizza slice to fall into the ground, I’m afraid this book would likely not suit your immediate interests in that way. For that, I’d recommend a book such as Young & Freedman’s “University Physics.” However, if you’re looking to peer into the world of scientific theories of ones such as Aristotle, Newton, Einstein, Hubble, and, of course, Hawking himself, I can very strongly recommend this book.

As Hawking confesses, this is one of those Physics books which will try to explain you everything without feeding you real meat or printing single equation (i.e., except E=MC2). So the result is that after reading this book you would start believing that somebody taught you Chinese but apparently you can't write a single letter in Chinese. I bought the book simply because I think Hawking is probably the closest in living people who can sit next to Einstein and Newton. The way it starts is really engaging. Illustrations and those full color images are absolutely fantastic. The way the book goes is to take you on the journey to just few microseconds after the big bang to few minutes after. The most interesting part of the book is the discussions and disputes about singularity. I guess that alone (or just that, depending on your view) is worth the price of the book. It's written with lots of passion, clever remarks and it will make you think. But soon enough you will realize you are a helpless being quickly descending in the muddy quicksand. As the chapter passes by, the topics get increasingly fuzzy and extremely confusing. I won't blame the author as the publisher didn't allow him to put "real meat" in his writings. These kind of advanced topics are inherently difficult to understand without presenting actual equations and dealing with guts and gore. I read the later parts of the book 3 times trying to make sense of it and finally came to a conclusion that it is impossible to extract a logical meaning of that part of text, even though it's syntactically correct. So buy this book to get some first hand insights in to singularity and dive in to black holes, but save your time by skipping later chapters.

Well written in language that a novice can understand. It is comprehensive with the knowledge available at the time. Great illustrations to help understand the topics; better than any physics science book for the classroom. It is an enjoyable read an learning experience.