Introduction to Cosmology: Barbara Ryden

by Barbara Ryden

Introduction to Cosmology provides a rare combination of a solid foundation of the core physical concepts of cosmology and the most recent astronomical observations. The book is designed for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students and assumes no prior knowledge of general relativity. An emphasis is placed on developing the readers' physical insight rather than losing them with complex math. An approachable writing style and wealth of fresh and imaginative analogies from "everyday" physics are used to make the concepts of cosmology more accessible. The book is unique in that it not only includes recent major developments in cosmology, like the cosmological constant and accelerating universe, but also anticipates key developments expected in the next few years, such as detailed results on the cosmic microwave background.

Genres: Physics, Science, Textbooks, Astronomy, Nonfiction, Space, Mathematics

237 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2002

Reviews

[Jack]

Good intro to cosmology.
I read this book twice with very different results. The first time it seemed confusing. The second time, I read it while taking MITs open courseware course on the early universe. The course and the book complemented each other and made for a really good experience. I also used kindle cloud reader as my reading device rather than the kindle app or a kindle device. Both the app and the kindle device do a terrible job with displaying equations. The cloud reader doesn’t have that problem.

[La Rayo]

خیلی از مدل نگارش درسنامه لذت بردم. همینجور میخوندم میخوندم و یهو یه ایستر اگ بامزه گیرم میومد. برای شروع خیلی لذت‌بخشه. توصیه میشه نیمه شب مطالعه بشه :)
برای توضیحات بیشتر و یا یک قدم پیشرفته‌تر خوندن، من سراغ لیدل میرفتم و کمک دست خوبی بود.

[Starling]

One of the best textbooks I've ever had to read. Really good explanations, and engagingly written for a student, which makes it much easier to get through and understand. Also loved the occasional historical background into the discoveries, and the poetry from people back then! Also the first time I've seen "she" used in a textbook to address a hypothetical student, which felt very refreshing.

[lassie]

I'll separate this into two, as I used this both as a textbook for a course as well as a "for fun" reading after that.

As a textbook: it's great, there's none of the "as we can very clearly see from this equation"-nonsense that is frequently present in physics textbooks, everything is explained both mathematically and in layman terms, there's plenty of graphs to illustrate the points in the text, and the exercises were fun and challenging in equal measure. Got an okay grade from the course thanks to the studying process being so pleasant.

As a "for fun" book: if you're okay with algebra and familiar with classical mechanics as well as concepts from general relativity, the book reads almost like a normal popular science book.

The only thing that occasionally got on my nerves was the never-ending barrage of dad jokes scribbled onto the footnotes. On a good day, I'd ignore them - during a rushed busy exam season where I wanted only the answers to the remaining questions, seeing one brought out the ancestor ape from inside me and prompted rather primitive thoughts of flinging stuff.

[Mohamed]

This was one of the two textbook which I have during my cosmology course in the university. The book lacks a lot of illustration in some points like , Neutrino decoupling and CMB fluctuations and also it depends from the early beginning in specific Cosmological model for density contribution (Benchmark model) which leads me to confuse the result the book got with the result I drive for more easier or illustrative model (Single component universe mainly.

But in general the book is very good as an introduction but needs a lot of consulting for the suggested reading after each chapter provide and also need the consult a professor so i don't think it is suitable for self study.

[Folkert Wierda]

Ryden gives a very good overview of cosmology (status: 2002) with a good combination of text and math. Good to follow for someone who has no phobia for formulas and who is willing to slow down at the quantitative sections to understand how the steps are derived. Best are her explanations of abstract notions, some of which now make much more sense to me than after reading other texts.

[Anish Kumar]

It was required textbook for my course 8.286 at mit. It's for advanced undergraduates but the writing is very clear and "lively". It's fun to read sometimes and not so much other times. Full of integrals and differential equations but easy enough equations..

[Skymeson Rolnick]

I love cosmology and this one in particular is easy to follow.

[Winston O'Toole]

Thus far my favourite textbook. Ryden lays down the math and facts, but keeps it colloquial enough to let the physical representation of the mathematics really sink in.

[Adrian Sanchez-Reyes Febrian]

Sometimes, I get "Sean Carroll" vibes, which is very good!

[Donald Lanzinger]

Exceptionally well-written, upper-graduate level textbook (created by Ryden for classes she taught). Is very conventional and does not question or engage many controversial areas such as inflation (see Roger Penrose's "The Road to Reality," 27.11 (p717). However, is focused and selected so that in this approximately 250 page book you get a good grounding on the currently accepted basics. Not for the mathematically faint at heart. Lots of differential and integral calculus. However, you don't have to do the math to get the message. She includes sufficient pictorials and analogies and references to measurements that you can follow without having to do or understand each equation (of which there are many). Cosmology is focused on the origin of the universe and so galaxies are too small to bother with. Definitely well-worth the effort to read.

[Jack Marotta]

This is a fantastic introduction to the field of cosmology. Ryden's explanations are very clear and I very much appreciate her frequent humorous interjections. Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable yet informative textbook. Highly recommend!

[Duncan McKinnon]

This book does a good job building on topics through the chapters to develop in the student both a conceptual and operational understanding of modern cosmology.

[Camille]

Interesting concepts, I give it 2 stars because it was very difficult read....I have no idea what she was saying.....

[giubilet]

prova a non dire madre challenge fallita

[Shaun O'Keeffe]

Easily one of the best astronomy texts I've read. Good flow, explained concepts and mathematics that assist the learning journey, and some humor put in there as well.

[oJLP]

If only I had killed myself in seventh grade, cause then I wouldn’t have had to read this fucking thing
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(The book is fine tbh)

[Fathiyul Fahmi]

memberi wawasan kosmologi meskipun matematiknya kurang detail

[Ludwig]

very very good book!

[Suze Geuke]

Ik kwam tot bladzijde 83 tot de wiskunde me echt om de oren sloeg maar hee wat een leuke dame en wat een leuk universum hebben we.

[Alex]

Textbook.

[Muhammad Ali Syaifudin]

Easy to read, very user friendly book.