Name: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Rating: 3.889312977099237 (131 reviews)
ISBN: 9780241235973

Carlo Rovelli

THE PHENOMENAL BESTSELLER 'There's a book I've been carrying around like a small Bible, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' - Benedict Cumberbatch Everything you need to know about modern physics, the universe and your place in the world in seven enlightening lessons These seven short lessons guide us, with simplicity and clarity, through the scientific revolution that shook physics in the twentieth century and still continues to shake us today. In this beautiful and mind-bending introduction to modern physics, Carlo Rovelli explains Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, elementary particles, gravity, and the nature of the mind. In under eighty pages, readers will understand the most transformative scientific discoveries of the twentieth century and what they mean for us. Not since Richard Feynman's celebrated best-seller Six Easy Pieces has physics been so vividly, intelligently and entertainingly revealed.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Amelia

In both cases the reward is sheer beauty and new eyes with which to see the world.

Before experiments, measurements, mathematics, and rigorous deductions, science is above all about visions. Science begins with a vision. Scientific thought is fed by the capacity to "see" things differently than they have previously been seen.

Even if we observe a small, empty region of space in which there are no atoms, we still detect a minute Swarming of these particles. There is no such thing as a real void, one that is completely empty. Just as the calmest sea looked at closely sways and trembles, however slightly, so the fields that form the world are subject to minute fluctuations, and it is possible to imagine its basic particles having brief and ephemeral existences, continually created and destroyed by these movements.

Our world may have actually been born from a preceding universe that contracted under its own weight until it was squeezed into a tiny space before "bouncing" out and beginning to re-expand, thus becoming the expanding universe that we observe around us. The moment of this bounce, when the universe was contracted into a nutshell, is the true realm of quantum gravity: time and space have disappeared altogether, and the world has dissolved into a swarming cloud of probability that the equations can, however, still describe. 

The difference between past and future exists only when there is heat. The fundamental phenomenon that distinguishes the future from the past is the fact that heat passes from things that are hotter to things that are colder.

Another way of posing the problem is to ask oneself: what is the "present"? We say that only the things of the present exist: the past no longer exists and the future doesn't exist yet. But in physics there is nothing that corresponds to the notion of the "now." Compare "now" with "here." "Here" designates the place where a speaker is: for two different people "here" points to two different places. Consequently "here" is a word the meaning of which depends on where it is spoken. The technical term for this kind of utterance is "indexical." "Now" also points to the instant in which the word is uttered and l5 also classed as indexical." But no one would dream Of saying that things "here" exist, whereas things that are not "here" do nọt exİSt. So then why do we say that things that are now exist and that everything else đoesn’t? 

The heat of black holes is a quantum effect upon an object, the black hole, which is gravitational in nature. It is the individual quanta of space, the elementary grains of space, the vibrating "molecules," that heat the surface of black holes and generate black hole heat. This phenomenon involves all three sides of the problem: quantum mechanics, general relativity, and thermal science. The heat of black holes is like the Rosetta stone of physics, written in a combination of three languages quantum, gravitational, and thermodynamicstill awaiting decipherment in order to reveal the true nature of time.

Our intense sensation of interior liberty, as Spinoza acutely saw, comes from the fact that the ideas and images that we have of ourselves are much cruder and sketchier than the detailed complexity of what is happening within us. We are the source of amazement in our own eyes. 

We have a hundred billion neurons in our brains, as many as there are stars in a galaxy, with an even more astronomical number of links and potential combinations through which they can interact. We are not conscious of all of this. "We are the process formed by this entire intricacy, not just by the little of it of which we are conscious. The "I" who decides is that same "T" that is formed (in a way that is still certainly not completely clear, but that we have begun to glimpse) from reflections upon itself, through self-representations in the world, from understanding itself as a variable point of view placed in the context of the world, from that impressive structure that processes information and constructs repre sentations that is our brain. When we have the feeling that "it is I" who decides, we couldn't be more correct. Who else?

Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world. And it's breathtaking.

Instant New York Times Bestseller "Short and resonant. . . . The essays in Seven Brief Lessons on Physics arrive like shots of espresso."--The New York Times "A startling and illustrative distillation of centuries of science."--The Economist "Lean, lucid and enchanting."--New Scientist The international bestseller that reveals all the beauty of modern physics in seven short and enlightening lessons Seven Brief Lessons on Physics is a book about the joy of discovery. Carlo Rovelli brings a playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics, offering surprising--and surprisingly easy to grasp--explanations of Einstein's general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, and the role humans play in this weird and wonderful world. He takes us to the frontiers of our knowledge: to the most minute reaches of the fabric of space, back to the origins of the cosmos, and into the workings of our minds. "Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world," Rovelli writes. "And it's breathtaking."

Tim Pendry

Possibly a little over-hyped on its appearance, this is an exceptionally clear summary of what most scientists believe is the basis for an understanding of reality. I say believe rather than know advisedly because Rovelli is careful to say what we do not know as well as what we think we know. The point here is that our current understanding of physical reality is the work of barely a century. Although the achievement is remarkable, we have to be careful of substituting an earlier belief in science (before Einstein) that is now seen as limited with a new belief system. The new understanding of reality is better than that of the Newtonian era. Both are better than a so-called age of faith that relied on revealed texts and God but it would be naive to think that earlier truths had definitively been replaced by a final truth. Mathematics must not be the new God. The book is quite slight. It is a translation of seven short articles in an Italian newspaper in or just before 2014. The whole thing could be read with reasonable attention in about ninety minutes. Much of the excitement surrounding the book is really testimony to wider ignorance. The virtue of the book lies in the fact that Rovelli has a gift for simple analogy. The complex mathematics that is constructing our current perception of reality is brought to a level where we can begin mentally to see what he is talking about in very physical imagery. Perhaps the best chapter in this is the fifth on the granular naure of space which just happens to coincide with Rovelli's own area of interest - the investigation of quantum gravity. But the whole book is worth reading albeit with an edge of scepticism on some potential claims. For example, he asserts the general physicist view that time has no reality but this apparent consensus makes certain assumptions about the value of mathematical modelling on which Lee Smolin has raised some important questions that might suggest we should not be too accepting. The final chapter on our place in the universe - which usually allows scientists to offer little more than posturing platitudes - is, in this case, finely tuned and appealing as a humane and 'Lucretian' view of the positive aspects of our being very small in the universe. Rovelli does, unfortunately, slip into a couple of standard issue species-pessimistic paragraphs with the usual obeisance to climate change (oh, yawn!) but, in this, he is just a creature of his European time. Even Homer may nod. The general tenor of his position is nicely humanistic. The virtue of this slim volume is that it is likely to shake up a few intellectuals and show them that they are living as much in the past as their counterparts were in late sixteenth century Europe who had not actually understood the implications of Copernicus. To be honest, although I am reasonably well educated in this area, Rovelli shook me up a little and gave me a better understanding of the latest iteration of reality so that it is impossible to think now, as I did, in a sort of half-baked melange of Newtonianism and relativity. I now 'get' how space time 'feels' (rather than abstractly 'understand' it). The same with the 'granular' nature of underlying reality. I can also see that we have barely begun to see the cultural, social and political implications of this new world view. By reminding us of Lucretius and his materialism, Rovelli subtly reminds us of the way his materialism was also embedded in a positive pagan view of the world and one senses that the future world will be pagan again, perhaps, I hope, without the spiritual flummery. This is where the standard issue intellectual pessimism about the species feels a little out of place. Of course, it is possible we shall be a short-lived species. It is equally possible that we may be the longest lived. Choosing which is the likely outcome is not science but sentiment.

Timeo Williams

Excellent intro and overview of the development of both quantum and relativity theory as of now. Interesting thoughts on loop quantum gravity and the idea of getting rid of time, and a new way of looking at heat/thermodynamics.

César Steven Toribio

Eighty-one pages of distilled science and beauty.

Hernando

A while ago (circa 6 years) I read a book called something like "Linux for dumb, naive and extremely clumsy people". It got my attention as the tittle was really weird for a learning book, but I picked it up and read it. 
It was interesting to read all the things the author said about those people who are not actually stupids but when you try to explain them something as hard as you can they just don't get it , they just simply don't understand that easily and that can happen to any people with any other topic. 

This book reminds me that, in the way that many people don't really understand what's the deal with general relativity and then quantum mechanics and then with thermodynamics and then again with a world full of probabilities. But still, there are people out there with a profound gift to teach (like in this case ) who want to explain all those topics in simple words; The author here make things very simple, kind of like ELA5. 

He gets quite emotional towards the end but I can understand why. He seems to be loving what he is doing as a theoretical physicist. 

All the best for him and his team with that weird theory of loop quantum gravity.

Jasmine Stanway

I enjoyed this book. I read a little bit every few days when I had the time, and it was lovely to increase my knowledge of physics. I wasn’t terribly keen on the final chapter, I didn’t really see what it had to do with the subject of physics and it stated certain theories as facts that I personally don’t believe in. But overall I found it very interesting. Carlo Rovelli has a compelling writing style in addition to his vast knowledge of physics, and this was a great choice to pull me out of my reading slump!

Eva Decker

Seven Brief Lessons is neither here nor there. It's not poetic enough to inspire, yet not detailed enough to be instructional. It's marketed as a beginner's guide to physics, yet leaves major concepts unexplained (despite finding it appropriate to include certain complex mathematical formulas), grasping at once in every direction, and thus in no direction at all. Includes a long, winding tangent at the end about how the world is doomed. Flashy book cover, though.

Stef

"Our universe may have been born from a bounce in a prior phase, passing through an intermediate phase in which there was neither space nor time."

Six basic lessons of physic which not simple but really making me to learn physic even more.

Mudita

This book is something that might get you inspired or interested in physics, but you’re not going to learn much from just it. The lessons are at a very high/abstracted level. Quite nicely written though.

Daniel Lauzon

A whirlwind overview of 7 fundamental aspects of physical reality. The author is a great storyteller, weaving through this very human endeavor. 
Oh, .. and it's a lot of fun!

Dana Kraft

This book is appropriately titled except for the last chapter about "ourselves." Definitely didnt care for the last chapter. 

I didn't find myself swept up in the author's passion for the beauty of physics, nor did this make me interested in reading more about these subjects or physics in general. Normally, I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff and i'm not sure why i found this kind of flat. I think i would have liked more about practical applications of these issues.

Irene Alegre

I will probably need to re-read this a couple of times so that it makes some sense to me, but God isn't it beautiful. And fascinating.

brendan sudol

Rebeca Keren Nuñez

Muy interesante. Utiliza un lenguaje que se puede comprender. Me recuerda un poco a un libro de Stephen Hawking que leí hace poco, sobre todo en la forma, los contenidos si bien tienen puntos comunes, son diferentes.

Cindy Lieberman

The author read the audiobook, so I was challenged to understand the physics while trying to understand what he was saying. The author has an excellent command of English but speaks with a heavy accent that made it more difficult. I recommend reading the print version to get the most out of it.

Meriem💫

I am positively starstruck. That last chapter just completely bewildered me. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. A little booklet to zoom oneself out in perspective and think, for once, about how completely, infinitely massive and incomprehensible the universe it.

Pranav Mutatkar

An elegant introduction to physics and why its neccesary for anybody regardless of your background to see the beauty and poetry in it. Rovelli does a good job of taking the layperson and thrusting him in. Creating a gateway drug hopefully so that the "non math people" and the "not a science person" will realize that math and science are just as important and just as beautiful and creative as everything else.

In this short, playful, entertaining and mind-bending introduction to modern physics, Rovelli explains Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, elementary particles, gravity, and the nature of the mind. In under one hundred pages, readers will understand the most transformative scientific discoveries of the twentieth century.

Tanja Hoffmann

Would have liked a longer section on the theory of relativity, but otherwise great! Phenomenal writing.

Kerry Gibbons

I weirdly feel like I now understand a bit better what quanta are...
And I had a revelation during the last chapter about fractals and humans and neurons. It was kind of a big deal for me, even though it wasn't really what he was talking about. He explains everything simply but not very dumbed down.

Highly recommend it as an audiobook. Very quick listen (approx 1 hour on 1.5x speed). It will also make you feel very smart. 

Do not highly recommend listening to this on the way to a dinner party unless you want to bore people. Because you'll want to talk about it.

Nikolay Bachiyski

Tiny book, approachable explanations of the big ideas in physics. Far from practical, but the simplicity of some of those theories can count as beautiful.

Jeni Enjaian

I enjoyed this book. Rovelli writes with confident knowledge that flows beautifully together. He truly brings physics to an understandable level without "dumbing it down" for the "regular" reader like myself without any physics training. The reason I give the book four stars instead of five is because the conclusion appears to veer away from physics and felt more difficult to understand. (Granted, that might have been because I was falling asleep when I read the first few pages of the conclusion and finished the book when I picked it up in the morning.)

Hugo Ahlberg

Physics as poetry

This book was a joy to read. It deals with super complex topics, but in a very approachable and humble way. It’s beautiful as well, sometimes like poetry which perhaps is not what you expect from a book on physics.. There are definitely parts which I still don’t grasp despite re-reading them. Like the chapter on thermodynamics—the relationship between heat, probability and time. However, I would be the first to admit that is probably more due to my limited capabilities than anything else.

Jeremy Cote

I really loved this book, since it was short and very informative. I always like to read a high-level overview of physics, since wading through the mathematics all the time can take long (though it is enjoyable). I recommend this to anyone interested in our universe.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

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