Eyewitness: Time and Space

Amazon.com
Bake a soufflé, and you'll never unscramble the ingredients again. Unless, that is, you twist the ends of a wormhole around several times and drive a rocket through it, traveling back to a time before you ever cracked an egg. In Time & Space, part of the Eyewitness Science series, you'll learn all about time travel, wormholes, and all the ways that the universe is thought to be constructed. Stand-ins from real life (like orange peels, broken glasses, and trains) help you figure out what Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and other physicists mean when they refer to black holes, space-time distortion, and other strange cosmic things. Starting with ancient ideas about space and time, and ending with the imaginary construction of a wormhole through time, Time & Space takes you on a colorfully illustrated trip through history, with great photos of the tools people have used to measure time and distance in many cultures. This is a great starter book in astrophysics, and it will help you understand things like whether the universe has always existed, what star systems look like, and what would happen to you if you fell into a black hole. (Ages 12 and older) --Therese Littleton


The New York Times
...a mini museum between the covers of a book. [Eyewitness series]


School Library Journal
These books' striking visual impact will draw in even the most casual readers. [Eyewitness series]


Book Description
Explore the changing ideas about our Universe -- from the flat Earth to black holes. Here is a spectacular, thought-provoking, and highly informative guide to the mysteries of the Universe. Superb full-color photography of scientific instruments, experiments, and innovative 3-D models reveals the discoveries and latest research that have transformed our understanding of the Universe. See how time and space are measured, the world's largest telescope, in Hawaii, a sonic tape measure, inside an atom, and how pulsars flicker on and off with amazing precision. Learn how far it is to the Moon, whether time can stand still, how to pop through a wormhole, how Einstein helped prove that everything is made of atoms, when the world's oldest observatory was built, and why "London Time" was introduced in 1840. Discover how the Universe is expanding, whether Schrodinger's cat is dead or alive, bouncing universes, what astronomers call "spaghettification", the difference between biotime and biospace, how ripples in spacetime happen, and much, much more.


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For centuries scientists have attempted to understand the concepts of time and space. Even now, in an era where we pride ourselves on our scientific accomplishments, we have only the most basic understanding of our planet's place in the universe. Concepts such as black holes, time travel, and the inner workings of atoms are the focus of intense research. Yet, despite mankind's efforts to grasp outer space and the relationship of time to space, these realities remain little understood. In this volume of the "Eyewitness Books" series, the reader is introduced to essential elements of practice and study through text, full-color photographs, 3-D model simulations, and sidebars featuring key experiments. The quantum theory, sub-atomic particles, relativity, and the "big bang" theory are presented in a multi-faceted manner. What we understand to be common sense may, indeed, be totally wrong when related to space and time. For example, why would time move backwards if travel was at a tremendous rate of speed? This seems to make no sense yet Einstein and subsequent physicists are convinced of its truth. All in all, Time & Space provides some thought-provoking material for students interested in this aspect of science. While the text is somewhat complex for a general reader it is appropriate for use with highly motivated or academically talented students. 2000, DK Publishing, Ages 12 up, $15.95. Reviewer: Greg M. Romaneck


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