Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics

I just finished this book after almost a year, lol. It's a great read; I've reread the chapters many times over the past year because it's just so interesting. This is a perfect book for anyone interested in theoretical science or physics.

First I will say that I am a relatively harsh critic. I would only give 5 stars to a book which I consider to be a “Break Through” type book which this is not. The book does not provide any new theories or insight, but rather is a review of many interesting paradoxes (& some are not really paradoxes) that have existed in physics. However, that being said, this book is very interesting and well written.The author starts off discussing several simple paradoxes that do not deal with physics. One example is the “Monty Hall Paradox” which comes from the TV show “Let’s make a Deal.” The author stated that considerable effort went into resolving this paradox, which I found puzzling since it seemed to be relatively simple.After this first chapter, the book moved into far more interesting topics. These included: paradoxes created when traveling close to the speed of light, Time travel, Parallel Universes and the existence of ET.Having an advanced technical degree, I would have preferred the author doing a deeper dive into the math; however, this author seemed to purposely avoid this. Rather, he went into a great deal of effort to explain his reasoning to an audience lacking any technical background.Over all I would recommend this book to anyone (at any level) who is interested in physics.

I enjoyed this book and found that it helped to clarify the paradoxes discussed in this book (see below). In doing so, it also provided a good overview of many of the conundrums that relativity theory and quantum mechanics have created. I give this book 5-stars and recommend it to people, like myself (a retired research metallurgist with a long ago exposure to modern phyaics in graduate school and further reading since I have retired), which have some understanding of the ideas presented in this book, but with the reservation that those with little or no background in the subjects covered are likely to view the book less positively.What is in this book-This book discusses the most important paradoxes created by modern physics, plus two introductory chapters that discusses some logic paradoxes. The chapters and their content are as follows:Chapter 1 – The Game Show Paradox – Monty Hall and how his knowledge of what is behind the three curtains alters the odds when he lets a contestant switch from their initial choice to another one.Chapter 2 – Achilles and the Tortoise – Classical paradoxes and how they are resolved.Chapter 3 – Olbers’ Paradox – Why is the sky not covered with stars, making the nighttime as bright as the daytime? The physics here is about the finite nature of the visible universe and the ideas concerning the beginning and expansion of the universe.Chapter 4 – Maxell’s Demon – The physics of the second law of thermodynamics is discussed in this chapter.Chapter 5 – The Pole in the Barn Paradox - Special relativity and length contraction are discussed in this chapter.Chapter 6 – The Paradox of Twins – This chapter focuses on special relativity and time dilation.Chapter 7 – The Grandfather Paradox – This chapter focuses on relativity theory and the possibility of travel back in time that the theory allows for.Chapter 8 – The Paradox of Laplace’s Demon – This chapter deals with the ideas of a mechanically deterministic universe and free will.Chapter 9 – The Paradox of Schrodinger’s Cat - The basic paradox of Quantum Mechanics and the question of entanglement is discussed in this chapter.Chapter 10 – Fermi’s Paradox - Fermi asked - if there are aliens from other planets why haven’t they visited (at least as far as most people are concerned) or have given any indication of their existence? The physics is about the possibilities of life on other planets.Chapter 11 - Remaining questions – These are not paradoxes, but questions which the author thinks will be answered in his lifetime, answered but not in the foreseeable future and questions that may never be answered. This chapter is only 6-pages long and only lists the questions, but does not discuss them.

I think he does a good job of explaining all thees 9 paradoxes. But if you are familiar with most of them there is not much new in them except Jim's particular spin on them. You may find it a very interesting and well written if you are not familiar with any of these.

The scenarios was so familiarThat I got fired by paradoxical raccoon pirates at my jobs….

I always enjoy listening and watching Jim Al-Khalili because he has a really relaxed but informative presentation style. This is the first book I have bought by him and it won’t be the last because he uses the same approach. Aimed at the interested but not necessarily ‘expert’ person (and I am definately at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to physics) he tackles really complex ideas in his usual style to entertain and inform his reader.

Großartige Zusammenstellung zu den 'neun größten Enigmas (Paradoxien) in der Physik! Klar, kennen die meisten Schrödingers Katze, aber was bedeutet es lebend und tot zur gleichen Zeit und 'warum?'. Das ist gut dargelegt und recht verständlich geschrieben. So spannend es ist, den Geheimnissen der Physik zu ergründen, ich denke einige der vorgestellten neun Phänomene sind schlicht Gedankenexperimente und keine Paradoxien - dennoch sehr empfehlenswert.

Great explanations. Great handpicked paradoxes and brain teasers. Recommended for all

Love this book. It is an informative and entertaining read. I will definitely be buying more from this author! Science rocks!

I got it as a gift for my nephew who is in high school and he loved it. I am glad I bought it.