The Idea of Time

ISBN-13: 9780471985457 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 162 str.

C. H. Holland; Charles Hepworth Holland;Holland

Opis

One of the most commonplace yet difficult scientific concepts to examine is time; what is time?, how does it flow?, why is it divided as it is?, is it linear or circular?, does time stop and when did it begin?, Are we governed by our biological clock or is the elastic time of theoretical physics the true concept of time? This volume raises the complex question of what do we mean when we speak about time?. Examining perspectives on time, how and why we measure time as we do, and time in relation to our lives, the author launches a wide-ranging enquiry into this elusive concept. Bringing in insights from biology, physics, history, literature, music, philosophy, religion and cosmology, this book looks at time and the universe as a whole, from the beginnings of time through to the present.

Recenzje

"...a success..."(Journal of Geoscience Education, Vol 48, 2000)"an erudite, cultured and poetic vision"(Palaeontological Association, November 2001)

Spis treści

What Do We Mean When We Talk About Time?

Clocks and Calendars.

Time and Life.

Human Time.

The Artistic View of Time.

A Growing Sense of Geological Time.

Geochronometry.

Stratigraphy.

The Solar System and Beyond.

Cosmology.

The Philosophy of Time.

What Do We Understand When We Think About Time?

Further Reading.

Index.

Blurb

The Idea of Time Charles Hepworth Holland Trinity College, Dublin, Eire What is time? What do we understand when we think about time? What do we mean by ′now′? This book covers concisely all the different aspects of time with an anchoring point within the geological sciences. Here successions of strata are seen as representing successions of events in the long history of the earth; palaeontology provides a record of organic evolution through nearly the whole of these several thousand million years. The rest of the book diversifies in discussing the measurement of time both physically and biologically; our human perception of it; the ending of personal time in death; the pervading presence of time in the arts; out through astronomy to cosmology; into philosophy and religion. The idea of time is a very complex one but this book undertakes a journey to prove that it is not beyond comprehension.