Black Holes Wormholes and Time Machines - Jim Al-Khalili PDF
Preview Black Holes Wormholes and Time Machines - Jim Al-Khalili
B H L A C K O L E S W O R M H O L E S & T M I M E A C H I N E S J A -K IM L HALILI University of Surrey Institute of Physics Publishing Bristol and Philadelphia B H L A C K O L E S W O R M H O L E S & T M I M E A C H I N E S About the Author Jim Al-Khalili was born in 1962 and works as a theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey in Guildford. He is a pioneering popularizer of science and is dedicated to conveying the wonder of science and to demystifying its frontiers for the general public. He is an active member of the Public Awareness of Nuclear Science European committee. His current research is into the properties of new types of atomic nuclei containing neutron halos. He obtained his PhD in theoretical nuclear physics from Surrey in 1989 and, after two years at University College London, returned to Surrey as a Research Fellow before being appointed lecturer in 1992. He has since taught quantum physics, relativity theory, mathematics and nuclear physics to Surrey undergraduates. He is married with two young children and lives in Portsmouth in Hampshire. (cid:1)c IOPPublishingLtd1999 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, storedinaretrievalsystemortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without thepriorpermissionofthepublisher. Multiplecopyingispermittedin accordancewiththetermsoflicencesissuedbytheCopyrightLicensing AgencyunderthetermsofitsagreementwithUniversitiesUK(UUK). BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN 0750305606 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataareavailable Reprintedwithcorrections2000 Reprinted2001(twice),2003 ProductionEditor: AlTroyano ProductionControl: SarahPlentyandJennyTroyano CommissioningEditor: MichaelTaylor EditorialAssistant: VictoriaLeBillon CoverDesign: KevinLowry MarketingExecutive: LauraSerratrice Published by Institute of Physics Publishing, wholly owned by The InstituteofPhysics,London Institute of Physics Publishing, Dirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS16BE,UK USOffice: InstituteofPhysicsPublishing,Suite929,ThePublicLedger Building, 150 South Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA TypesetinTEXusingtheIOPBookmakerMacros FirstprintedintheUKbyJWArrowsmithLtd,Bristol ReprintedintheUKbyMPGBooksLtd,Bodmin,Cornwall To Julie, David and Kate C O N T E N T S PREFACE ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii INTRODUCTION xv SPACE 1 THE 4TH DIMENSION 3 Todowithshapes •Whatisspace? •2Dworldand2D’ers • Curvedspace •Istherereallyafourthdimension? 2 MATTERS OF SOME GRAVITY 22 Apples and moons • Einstein’s gravity • Free fall • Rubber space •Twinkle,twinkle •Cookingtheelements •Champagne supernovaeinthesky 3 THE UNIVERSE 41 The night sky • How big is the Universe? • The expanding Universe•Hubble,bubble...•Spaceisstretching•DidtheBig Bangreallyhappen? •Theedgeofspace •Acloseduniverse • Anopenuniverse•WhatshapeistheUniversethen? •Invisible matter•1998:abigyearincosmology•IstheUniverseinfinite? •Whyisitdarkatnight? •BeforetheBigBang? •Summary 4 BLACK HOLES 78 Moretolightthanmeetstheeye! •Invisiblestars •Beyondthe horizon •Aholethatcanneverbefilled •Spinningblackholes •Fallingintoablackhole •Toseeablackhole •Notsoblack afterall •Whiteholes vii BLACK HOLES, WORMHOLES & TIME MACHINES TIME 5 TIMES ARE CHANGING 111 Whatistime? •Whoinventedtime? •Thefirstmoment • Doestimeflow? •Somethingcalledentropy •Arrowsoftime •StephenHawkinggetsitwrong •Apossiblesolution 6 EINSTEIN’S TIME 139 Whatissospecialaboutspecialrelativity? •Thetwofacesof light •Thoughtexperimentsandbrainteasers •Slowingdown time •Shrinkingdistances •Light—theworldspeedrecord • Whentimerunsbackwards •Littlegreenmen •Fastforwardto thefuture •Spacetime—thefutureisoutthere •Gravitational times 7 TIME TRAVEL PARADOXES 174 TheTerminatorparadox •Tryingtosavethedinosaurs •Mona Lisa’ssister •Nowayout? •Paralleluniverses •Whereare allthetimetravellers? TIME MACHINES 8 WORMHOLES 195 Abridgetoanotherworld •Alicethroughthelookingglass • Whensciencefactmetsciencefiction •Wormholes—keeping thestargateopen •Visitingaparalleluniverse 9 HOW TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE 216 Time loops • The Tipler time machine • Cosmic string time machines • A recipe for a wormhole time machine • Insurmountableproblems? 10 WHAT DO WE KNOW? 240 Themotherofalltheories •Theendoftheoreticalphysics • Astronomyversusastrology •Thefascinationofscience BIBLIOGRAPHY 254 INDEX 259 viii
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