CONFRONTING THE ENIGMA OF TIME

In Newton's classical mechanics, time played the role of a monotonically increasing evolution parameter. Einstein rejected the Newtonian concept and instead identified time as the fourth coordinate of a space-time four-vector. Today, scientists are considering different concepts of time as a means of resolving incompatibilities between relativity and quantum mechanics. Some view time as an emergent property of a system rather than a fundamental property, while others consider two temporal variables. The purpose of this book is to examine the role of time in modern physics so that the reader gains an increased awareness of time and its place in our understanding of nature.

Contents:

• Preface
• About the Author
• Introduction to the Enigma of Time
• Newtonian Time:
  • Time from Prehistory to the Ancient Greeks
  • Time from Ptolemy to Kepler
  • Newton and Maxwell
• Einsteinian Time:
  • Einstein's Special Relativity
  • Paradoxes of Special Relativity
  • Gravity and Action at a Distance
  • General Relativity
• Cosmology and the Inflationary Universe:
  • Introduction to Modern Cosmology
  • Evidence for the Expanding Universe
  • Physics of the Subatomic Scale
  • Prelude to the Big Bang
  • The Inflationary Universe
• The Future of Time:
  • Time's Arrow
  • Time: Death or Rebirth?
  • Historical Time
  • Epilogue — Resolving the Enigma of Time
• Dates of Selected Characters
• References
• Index

Readership: General public. Also suitable for undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and researchers in the fields of history of science, philosophy of science, general physics etc.

Key Features:

• The book shows that many of the issues which arise in understanding time occur when time is treated as if it is the same physical quantity in every application