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Creation of the Universe
The birth of the universe as a whole is now a challenging problem for physics. The evolution of the universe from nothing is described by the big bang theory. Creation of the Universe is the story of advances in cosmology and how they were made. It traces the developments of the big bang theory, from the expansion of the universe to quantum cosmology, from the formation of large scale structures to the physics of the PLank Era.
- GenresScience
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 31, 2019
Picked it up after Freeman Dyson, in one of his recent articles, described it as “the best popular account of how the universe can be friendly to life”. But then again, Dyson’s thesis is that heat death is a myth, and that we should expect the entropy of the universe to decrease. Given how radically out of step with the rest of the physics community this claim is, there are probably not that many books that would defend such proposition.
Fang Zhi does offer a popular but fairly technical account of how universe evolves towards order. He points out that particles of matter and radiation have different energy densities and different equations of state, and shows that under adiabatic expansion this yields a temperature differential (which of course is the opposite of heat death). Then he proceeds to give a quantitative description of negative thermal capacity of the solar system, a description that reverses the typical relationship between energy and temperature.
Overall the argument seems to suggest that, in the presence of gravity, thermodynamics works differently for large astronomical objects. This is Dyson’s claim as well. For the record, Lee Smolin also maintains that gravity results in the universe evolving towards order, rather than disorder.
I’m in no position to judge how sound these arguments are, but I will point out that Fang Zhi’s book was published a decade before the 1998 discovery of acceleration of the rate of cosmic expansion. Perhaps that discovery would have changed Zhi’s analysis, but neither Smolin nor Dyson have that excuse. Still, while this view is highly heterodox, Fang Zhi’s math is easy to follow and he relies on fundamental and perfectly orthodox physics. Glad I was exposed to it, although for now I’m sticking with the Past Hypothesis as my go to assumption.
Besides the controversial chapter 6, the rest of the book is a state of the union of 1988 cosmology. Two things make it unusual. Firstly, it doesn’t shy away from equations and it is quite amazing how much of seemingly esoteric cosmology falls out of relatively straightforward math and basic physics. Secondly, the book is just incredibly funny – Fang and his wife Li, while being impeccably rigorous with science, have a little side fun with both Western and Eastern intellectual traditions. Everybody from Aristotle and Lao Tsu to Kant and Laplace get a snarky remark. It’s as if Larry David edited the book. Overall, a very enjoyable read.
Fang Zhi does offer a popular but fairly technical account of how universe evolves towards order. He points out that particles of matter and radiation have different energy densities and different equations of state, and shows that under adiabatic expansion this yields a temperature differential (which of course is the opposite of heat death). Then he proceeds to give a quantitative description of negative thermal capacity of the solar system, a description that reverses the typical relationship between energy and temperature.
Overall the argument seems to suggest that, in the presence of gravity, thermodynamics works differently for large astronomical objects. This is Dyson’s claim as well. For the record, Lee Smolin also maintains that gravity results in the universe evolving towards order, rather than disorder.
I’m in no position to judge how sound these arguments are, but I will point out that Fang Zhi’s book was published a decade before the 1998 discovery of acceleration of the rate of cosmic expansion. Perhaps that discovery would have changed Zhi’s analysis, but neither Smolin nor Dyson have that excuse. Still, while this view is highly heterodox, Fang Zhi’s math is easy to follow and he relies on fundamental and perfectly orthodox physics. Glad I was exposed to it, although for now I’m sticking with the Past Hypothesis as my go to assumption.
Besides the controversial chapter 6, the rest of the book is a state of the union of 1988 cosmology. Two things make it unusual. Firstly, it doesn’t shy away from equations and it is quite amazing how much of seemingly esoteric cosmology falls out of relatively straightforward math and basic physics. Secondly, the book is just incredibly funny – Fang and his wife Li, while being impeccably rigorous with science, have a little side fun with both Western and Eastern intellectual traditions. Everybody from Aristotle and Lao Tsu to Kant and Laplace get a snarky remark. It’s as if Larry David edited the book. Overall, a very enjoyable read.
June 11, 2018
A fantastic read. Very accessible content albeit with a lot of newtonian mechanics instead of any relativistic calculations but arriving at the same result. The core concepts of big bang followed by proton decay never been observed, asking why its dark at night, understanding the expanding universe, the role of key constants and why answering if the universe is finite/infinite is tricky is all very deftly and handled simply in this beautiful work
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews