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Of Time and Space and Other Things
DOOMED PLANET They called him 'Crazy Rik' - but only he knew that the planet was doomed with all its people. The only key to the vital information that could save it was locked in the subconscious memory of this strange, child-minded man...a memory obliterated by a psychic probe!
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
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537 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,485 books27.5k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 25, 2007
Please see my review of X Stands for Unknown ([http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/98...]) for general comments on Isaac Asimov's science essays.
This collection, Of Time and Space and Other Things, is perhaps the best of all the compilations of Asimov's columns in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Unfortunately, the book does not specify from which issues these essays were selected, but if they are consecutive, as is standard for these anthologies, Asimov was on an incredible roll. (And wouldn't you know it, of all my Asimov collection, this is the book whose binding disintegrated after one reading. Sigh.)
Right off the bat we start with one of my favorite pieces of Asimovian science fact, "The Days of Our Years," a quick history of three calendrical systems now in use (the Gregorian, Jewish and Muslim calendars). He continues this theme in "Begin at the Beginning," as he discusses how various cultures treated the beginning of the day and year, and how years were numbered. Switching to astronomy, Asimov describes the celestial coordinate system in "Ghost Lines in the Sky," and then, in "The Heavenly Zoo," traces the history of the astrological signs, taking an incisive poke at astrology along the way. "Roll Call" is a listing of the planets, satellites and major asteroids of the Solar System, from a historical viewpoint (which, to me, makes the Good Professor's writing especially illuminating, even when the scientific subject is one I know well).
There follows another of Asimov's cleverest essays, "Just Mooning Around," in which he expounds a new system of classifying satellites by comparing the gravitational forces on the satellite from its primary (i.e., planet) and the Sun. The ratio of the two is the "tug-of-war value," and every planetary satellite then known has a tug-of-war value greater than 1 (meaning that the planet pulls harder than the Sun)--except one. (Guess which one!) Continuing Asimov's look at gravity, "First and Rearmost" is a careful comparison of the electromagnetic and gravitational forces.
Asimov then broadens his view, and in "The Black of Night," explains why the current model of the universe is consistent with a very dark nighttime sky on Earth. He speculates about exploding galaxies—a phenomenon that, in the light of more recent findings, I believe he misinterpreted—in "A Galaxy at a Time."
The "...and Other Things" section of the book begins with another classic, "Forget It," in which the author dissects a vast, impenetrable arithmetic book from 1797 (Pike's Arithmetic), and shows us how much useless information we have fortunately lost—mostly in terms of archaic units of measure. Now, if we can only convince America to convert to the metric system, we can get rid of the last of the awkward, useless units.
Next, "Nothing Counts" explains Roman numerals, and why the number zero is so gosh darn useful. "C Is for Celeritas" will make you relive your most uneasy moments in physics class, as it focuses on the dimensionality of energy, with emphasis on the special equality e = mc^2. In a similar vein, "A Piece of the Action" explores the "graininess" of the universe, and concomitantly, the discovery that separates "classical" physics from "modern" physics.
Asimov then turns to chemistry (his area of academic study). How "noble" are the noble gases? Find out in "Welcome, Stranger!" Learn all about chemical catalysts in "The Haste-Makers."
And lastly, another great article, "The Slowly Moving Finger," which relates longevity across the animal kingdom with body size, and formulates the rule that in general, the maximum lifespan of mammals is about one billion heartbeats—with one glaring exception.
This collection, Of Time and Space and Other Things, is perhaps the best of all the compilations of Asimov's columns in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Unfortunately, the book does not specify from which issues these essays were selected, but if they are consecutive, as is standard for these anthologies, Asimov was on an incredible roll. (And wouldn't you know it, of all my Asimov collection, this is the book whose binding disintegrated after one reading. Sigh.)
Right off the bat we start with one of my favorite pieces of Asimovian science fact, "The Days of Our Years," a quick history of three calendrical systems now in use (the Gregorian, Jewish and Muslim calendars). He continues this theme in "Begin at the Beginning," as he discusses how various cultures treated the beginning of the day and year, and how years were numbered. Switching to astronomy, Asimov describes the celestial coordinate system in "Ghost Lines in the Sky," and then, in "The Heavenly Zoo," traces the history of the astrological signs, taking an incisive poke at astrology along the way. "Roll Call" is a listing of the planets, satellites and major asteroids of the Solar System, from a historical viewpoint (which, to me, makes the Good Professor's writing especially illuminating, even when the scientific subject is one I know well).
There follows another of Asimov's cleverest essays, "Just Mooning Around," in which he expounds a new system of classifying satellites by comparing the gravitational forces on the satellite from its primary (i.e., planet) and the Sun. The ratio of the two is the "tug-of-war value," and every planetary satellite then known has a tug-of-war value greater than 1 (meaning that the planet pulls harder than the Sun)--except one. (Guess which one!) Continuing Asimov's look at gravity, "First and Rearmost" is a careful comparison of the electromagnetic and gravitational forces.
Asimov then broadens his view, and in "The Black of Night," explains why the current model of the universe is consistent with a very dark nighttime sky on Earth. He speculates about exploding galaxies—a phenomenon that, in the light of more recent findings, I believe he misinterpreted—in "A Galaxy at a Time."
The "...and Other Things" section of the book begins with another classic, "Forget It," in which the author dissects a vast, impenetrable arithmetic book from 1797 (Pike's Arithmetic), and shows us how much useless information we have fortunately lost—mostly in terms of archaic units of measure. Now, if we can only convince America to convert to the metric system, we can get rid of the last of the awkward, useless units.
Next, "Nothing Counts" explains Roman numerals, and why the number zero is so gosh darn useful. "C Is for Celeritas" will make you relive your most uneasy moments in physics class, as it focuses on the dimensionality of energy, with emphasis on the special equality e = mc^2. In a similar vein, "A Piece of the Action" explores the "graininess" of the universe, and concomitantly, the discovery that separates "classical" physics from "modern" physics.
Asimov then turns to chemistry (his area of academic study). How "noble" are the noble gases? Find out in "Welcome, Stranger!" Learn all about chemical catalysts in "The Haste-Makers."
And lastly, another great article, "The Slowly Moving Finger," which relates longevity across the animal kingdom with body size, and formulates the rule that in general, the maximum lifespan of mammals is about one billion heartbeats—with one glaring exception.
December 6, 2021
SF&F essay. Mooning around about the fact that our moon might not be a moon, since the pull of the sun is greater than that of earth. Moving finger, man’s hearts beats 4.5 more often than that of other creatures. C for celeritas. Just brilliant. (9/10)
[2021] I have reread this now probably four times. As always I am amazed how much I have forgotten. Right now I could explain the difference between a solar and a sidereal day. Not so sure about the precession of the equinoxes. And I already forgot what an Azimuth is.
Funny the only thing I learned at first reading I never forgot was that St. Petersburg was not named after its founder Peter the Great. I exactly remember the embarrassment because that was what had believed at the time.
In one of the essays Asimov talks about the value of forgetting. He had in mind unnecessary skills as knowing Roman numerals though. Or crazy knowledge like how many inches does a foot have. Or how to pronounce tough. 60 years later still no progress in this respect. Americans still love their Fahrenheit and do get the dates wrong (that is differently). Asimov would not be surprised that there is no sign of the metric system.
On page 170 it says that a kilowatt is equal to 100 watts. This is the kind of mistake that any European proofreader would spot.
What to remember this time? That if we had the power to turn mass into energy we had to sacrifice 125 cells to get our 2500 kilocalories needed for a day.
[2021] I have reread this now probably four times. As always I am amazed how much I have forgotten. Right now I could explain the difference between a solar and a sidereal day. Not so sure about the precession of the equinoxes. And I already forgot what an Azimuth is.
Funny the only thing I learned at first reading I never forgot was that St. Petersburg was not named after its founder Peter the Great. I exactly remember the embarrassment because that was what had believed at the time.
In one of the essays Asimov talks about the value of forgetting. He had in mind unnecessary skills as knowing Roman numerals though. Or crazy knowledge like how many inches does a foot have. Or how to pronounce tough. 60 years later still no progress in this respect. Americans still love their Fahrenheit and do get the dates wrong (that is differently). Asimov would not be surprised that there is no sign of the metric system.
On page 170 it says that a kilowatt is equal to 100 watts. This is the kind of mistake that any European proofreader would spot.
What to remember this time? That if we had the power to turn mass into energy we had to sacrifice 125 cells to get our 2500 kilocalories needed for a day.
August 5, 2008
I reread this little book about every year. Never has such a small book provided me with so much information that made me sound smart before! 13 quick essays will teach you all about the calendar, the stars, our world and it's rotational nuances. It's the stuff my dad relishes.
January 11, 2020
I read this is high school in the 90s and it started my interest in many things including physics, math and philosophy.
November 17, 2020
Chapter by chapter an in-depth (and usually) digestible scientific/ historical /cultural look at a range of topics: time, calendars, astrology, gravity, physics, numerals / mathematics, myth, astronomy - I could go on - often told in a corny (sometimes flippant / arrogant) dad joke way by Asimov.
December 25, 2014
This one was a remarkably good choice to finish up my year with. He discusses why we start our year on January 1st, how we measure time and why, how it relates to our solstice-vicinity winter festivals, and how we age.
Of course, I love all of Asimov's essays, but this was a particularly nice one for this time of year.
Of course, I love all of Asimov's essays, but this was a particularly nice one for this time of year.
May 28, 2019
Isaac Asimov truly makes learning fun. The way he describes ideas is so natural and easy to follow. He is so comical in a very naturally nerdy way. I love how this book reads the way he would talk. The sentence structure was so easy to follow, even if it was a complex idea he was trying to portray.
July 20, 2016
A decent introduction to astronomy and whatnot. Edutaiment, interesting stories, and dullness mixed in about equal quantities, so it probably won't hold the interest of someone who wasn't into the subject to begin with, but it's not bad.
Read
October 16, 2007Awesome lay-person book on some physics, some other interesting topics.
May 5, 2008
A collection of scientific essays, with subject matter ranging from astronomy to physics to mathematics. Dated now. But still good.
March 24, 2021
Nifty nuggets of knowledge! Asimov was the man!
October 1, 2012
My Godfather gave this book to me when I was 11 years old. I read it then and it hurt my head. I have read it a few more times since then and never fail to learn something new.
May 21, 2016
4th or 5th tiem through this amazing collection of Asimov's science essays. I've realized over the years, that my teaching style comes from reading his collections. I love to learn or relearn.
April 25, 2009
Awesome breakdown of the concept of time as we know it.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews