What if Einstein Was Wrong?: Asking the Big Questions about Physics

by Brian Clegg, Jim Al-Khalili

‘What if...?’ are the two words that sow the seeds for human speculation, experimentation, invention, evolution, revolution, revision and change. Consider the consequences of travelling back to the future or exploring the past. What if we dug a black hole or built a warp drive? How far away is science fiction from science fact? Explore aspects of physics that today seem as strange as when they first fooled great thinkers of the past or that remain speculative today.

What If Einstein Was Wrong? gathers together a team of scientific scholars to consider 50 key questions and their consequences, along with 7 historic speculations and their significance. In so doing, it offers you a new way to build up your understanding of the most topical science.

To speculate is to accumulate. To read a ‘What If...?’ is to accumulate the knowledge you need to debate the shape that our universe and world will take in the future.

Also available in the series ‘What if Money Grew on Trees?’

Genres: Physics, Science, Nonfiction

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.

Reviews

[Ami Iida · Rating 4 out of 5]

There're useful and interesting topics of quantum mechanism theory and general relatively theory.

[Marc Augier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un gros pavé de vulgarisation de la physique. Un bon moyen de faire le point sur l’état de l’art mais le passage sur l’IA est déjà en partie obsolète.
Pour le reste, c’est une succession de petits articles liés entre eux, ce qui permet de lire l’ouvrage de façon non linéaire. Toutefois, c’est souvent compliqué à comprendre et demanderait un peu plus de détail pour être intelligible pour un béotien.

[Fayçal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to some important notions and fields in physics for the uninitiated such as myself: Quantum physics, relativity, particle physics, cosmology, classical physics, astrophysics and some examples from modern technology and how physics plays a big role in their functioning.

[The_J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun romp through the Wilds of Physics and possibilities

[11jst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro con buenos datos

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

No es lo que esperaba.

💫¿Y si Einstein estuviera equivocado?💫

Bueno a ver, antes de nada decir que YA SABÍA que el libro entero no iba ser sobre la pregunta que lo titula, ( de eso ya me había dado cuenta ojeándolo) sino que cada página es una pregunta de diferente temática, eso sí, siempre dentro de la física. Las temáticas de estas son:

Física cuántica
La relatividad y los viajes en el tiempo
Física de partículas
Cosmología
Astrofísica
Física clásica
Tecnología.

Las temáticas que más me interesaban son la cuántica, la relatividad y la cosmología.
Como libro de divulgación me parece bueno, aunque las explicaciones demasiado cortas.

Cada página es una pregunta y "se resuelve"(porque realmente no se resuelve la pregunta, sino que se habla de lo que se sabe sobre esa cuestión) en la misma página en sí, por eso a veces, siento que se queda corta.

¿Lo recomiendo? Sí, sabiendo que es un libro de divulgación al uso y que no se sale de lo convencional, como pretende el título.

[Doug Farren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book that takes the reader through a flash overview of physics, cosmology, and other cutting-edge science. It would serve as a good introduction or even a high-level refresher of science discoveries that have shaped our world. For me, it was a very quick read (3 days) mostly because I have a good working knowledge of virtually all of the subjects covered by this book. Still, it was fun to read.

[Avesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an enjoyable read, despite the fact there was some very odd hypothetical situations. Also it's technically 80 pages, not 160 - there are about 80 pages of pictures, and no text.

[olem25 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Facile à comprendre avec une belle variété de sujets.
Superbes belles images, parfaites pour vous distraire entre deux sujets.

[ENIGMATICAMENTE · Rating 4 out of 5]

"¿Y si Einstein estuviera equivocado?" nos sumerge en una diversidad de preguntas sobre física cuántica, relatividad, física de partículas, cosmología, astrofísica, física (clásica) y tecnología que explican conceptos muy relevantes de una manera bastante práctica y cercana. La idea de esta obra de divulgación científica, según el autor, es el de volver a ser niños y hacernos todas esas preguntas que empiezan por '¿Y si...?'. De esta forma, podremos aprender sobre el mundo con datos y explicaciones sencillas a cuestiones como '¿y si una estrella rotara 600 veces por segundo?' o '¿y si regresaremos al futuro?' 0 '¿y si schrödinger perdió el gato?'

Sin lugar a dudas, recomiendo este libro a todo aquel que quiera 'poner a prueba' las ramas de conocimiento con este tipo de preguntas; ya que aprenderá muchos conceptos actuales de una manera muy amena. Cada pregunta le acompaña una página completa de explicación y algún que otro dato curioso en forma de otras preguntas tales como ¿entonces qué? ¿qué resulta? y ¿qué más? No puntúo con 5 estrellas el libro porque creo que las páginas de ilustraciones es una oportunidad perdida de haber introducido infografías en lugar de una foto representativa y genérica de la pregunta.

¿Y si lees el libro en lugar de seguir viendo más reseñas sobre este? :)

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed all the way through this. It seemed that nowhere did it tie into Einstein's famous E=mc2 as displayed on the cover. Nonetheless, I wish that I could have understood the many concepts introduced by "what if....", seeming to be related discoveries impelled by this equation. This bold title seems to promise more than it delivers.