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How the Universe Works

by Parnowski Aleksei

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A bridge from popular cosmology to introductory study

$35.45 USD
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Paperback New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Editorial selection

    CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2019

    Named an Outstanding Academic Title of 2019.

  • Critical praise

    Praised by CHOICE for its clear, accessible cosmology explanations

    CHOICE praises the book as useful for students seeking an overview of cosmology and commends its explanations an...

AlbakiReads Editorial

A bridge from popular cosmology to introductory study

Parnowski Aleksei’s overview moves from the expanding universe and the Big Bang to cosmic evolution, structure, dark matter, dark energy, and black holes. Its scope includes both foundational ideas and questions where cosmology still faces uncertainty or lacks consensus, as the book presents them. The format is designed to support understanding: sections close with question-and-answer summaries, and graphs illustrate concepts. Positioned between popular science and a textbook, the book also addresses the reasoning behind assumptions and estimates used in cosmology, offering a broad introduction alongside some mathematical explanation.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Undergraduate students seeking an introductory overview of cosmology and its mathematics.
  • Non-specialists who want a structured account of major cosmological ideas and open questions.
  • Readers familiar with popular science who want explanations that include assumptions and estimates.

Themes

Cosmology and the history of the universeBig Bang, expansion, and cosmic evolutionDark matter, dark energy, and black holesScientific uncertainty and unresolved questions

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"This volume fills a gap between books for lay readers and books for serious students of cosmology. An undergraduate student seeking a big picture understanding of cosmology and an easy introduction to the mathematics involved will find this book very useful. Each section concludes with a helpful summary in question-answer format. This is really useful in answering some questions and clarifying concepts that really do get addressed properly in the running prose format. Various lucid, simple graphs illustrate concepts throughout the text. A particularly refreshing aspect is the authors' respect for the reader's intelligence: they clearly admit where scientists still do not know the answers and at best can speculate."

CHOICE

 

This book is about the history and the current state of the art in the exciting field of cosmology -- the science about the Universe as a whole, which is guaranteed to attract the attention of a wide range of readers. It mostly aims to explain the main ideas of modern cosmology: the expanding Universe, its creation in a Big Bang, its evolution, characteristics, and structure, as well as issues -- dark matter and dark energy, black holes and other exotic objects etc. It also answers most frequently asked questions about cosmology.

How the Universe Works stands between a popular science book and a textbook, acting as a sort of a bridge across the great chasm separating popular science from true science. It can be also used as an introductory textbook for undergraduate students. It is also suitable for the non-experts in cosmology who wish to have an overview of the current state of the field. It is different from most popular science books because it avoids cutting corners in explanations and contains justification for various assumptions or estimations made in cosmology. It does not hide problems faced by modern cosmology as well as issues the community has no consensus about. It also does not try to pass hypotheses for established theories, which is not uncommon in scholarly articles.

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