Time is the ultimate frontier and as our understanding of the
physical world increases so are we inexorably drawn into its
mystery and the paradoxes it poses. Oxford University Press know
this well, which is exactly why they've chosen to re-print a
20-year-old work with the only addition being a new introduction
and a new bibliography. Whitrow, knows his stuff but since this was
written in 1972 there's no recounting of David Deutsch's theories,
no mention of superstings or wormholes or parallel universes. Not
even Hawking or Roger Penrose. Instead what you get is a good
account of theories which are, now, 20-years-old and a little out
of date. Good enough if you've missed the build up of interest in
time over the last 20 years and are wondering how are you ever to
catch up but otherwise one of those books which, unfortunately,
after finishing, leave you feeling that you know at least as much
about time as the author.(Kirkus UK)
G. J. Whitrow (1912-2000) begins this classic exploration of the
nature of time with a story about a Russian poet, visiting London
before the First World War. The poet's English was not too good and
when he asked a man in the street, 'Please, what is time?' he
received the response, 'But that's a philosophical question. Why
ask me?'.
Starting from this simple anecdote, Professor Whitrow takes us on
a good-humored and wide-ranging tour of the thing that clocks keep
(more or less). He discusses how our ideas of time originated; how
far they are inborn in plants and animals; how time has been
measured, from sundial and hourglass to the caesium clock, and
whether time possesses a beginning, a direction, and an end. He
coaxes the diffident layman to contemplate with pleasure the
differences between cyclic, linear, biological, cosmic, and
space-time, and he provides frequent diversions into fascinating
topics such as the Mayan calendar, the migration of birds, the
dances of bees, precognition, and the short, crowded lives of
mu-mesons, particles produced by cosmic-ray showers that exist for
just two millionths of a second.
This reissue of the classic and authoritative What is Time?
includes a new introduction by Dr J. T. Fraser, founder of the
International Society for the Study of Time, and a bibliographic
essay by Dr Fraser and Professor M. P. Soulsby of the Pennsylvania
State University.
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