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The Mystery of Time: Humanity's Quest for Order and Measure
Chronicles a visual journey through humanity's efforts to measure and quantify time, from watching the geese fly south for the winter to modern cosmology.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 6, 2022
"What then, is time? If no one asks me, I know. If I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not. - St Augustine of Hippo (p. 7)
11th-century Islamic scientist/philosopher Avicenna "argued that time existed only in the mind, based on our memories and expectations." Isaac Newton said it was a substance. (p. 7)
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once."- John Wheeler (p. 8)
"Wounds heal in time, things are constructed in time, things disappear in time and are destroyed in time, but this is not what time does." B. F. Skinner (p. 8)
Heraclitus argued "that there was no permanent reality but the reality of change, which characterized everything, and that the only possible real state was the transitional one of becoming. (p. 14)
"Time may not only be queerer than we imagine, but queerer than we can imagine." - British scientist J B S Haldane (p. 23)
Einstein characterized the past, present, and future as a persistent illusion. (p. 23)
Wherever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed." Henri-Louis Bergson (p. 27)
11th-century Islamic scientist/philosopher Avicenna "argued that time existed only in the mind, based on our memories and expectations." Isaac Newton said it was a substance. (p. 7)
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once."- John Wheeler (p. 8)
"Wounds heal in time, things are constructed in time, things disappear in time and are destroyed in time, but this is not what time does." B. F. Skinner (p. 8)
Heraclitus argued "that there was no permanent reality but the reality of change, which characterized everything, and that the only possible real state was the transitional one of becoming. (p. 14)
"Time may not only be queerer than we imagine, but queerer than we can imagine." - British scientist J B S Haldane (p. 23)
Einstein characterized the past, present, and future as a persistent illusion. (p. 23)
Wherever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed." Henri-Louis Bergson (p. 27)
June 14, 2017
This book has fed my primary human trait: curiosity. It answered questions I didn't know I had. It answered many "why" questions and thought I have had over the years. More importantly, it created new questions and ponderings for me to mull over. The photographs are beautiful, and the concepts discussed, engaging. My science-oriented mind that has been "on hold" for a while (being in the school system and needing to focus on exactly what they boxed us into with each subject, not allowing for the philosophical, beyond the curriculum thoughts and questions I had bouncing around in my head) and this opened that box back up again to be where I want it to be. Fantastic read!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews