A Brief History Of Time

A Brief History Of Time is Stephen Hawking’s way of explaining the most complex concepts and ideas of physics, such as space, time, black holes, planets, stars and gravity to the average Joe, so that even you and I can better understand how our planet was created, where it came from, and where it’s going.

As children we’re all scientists. We constantly come up with theories, and then test them. For example as a toddler you might have had the theory that a glass will easily survive its fall from the kitchen table

A theory, which you probably quickly went on to disprove, much to the frustration of your Mum and Dad.

Nowadays, since we’re grown up, we don’t see theories as what they are any more: educated guesses.

If you come up with the theory that your software startup needs 1,000 clients to thrive and start turning a profit, you almost instantly accept it as true, which leads to lots of disappointment, should you fail in spite of reaching that goal.

Hawking says a theory is nothing more than a model, which correctly explains a big number of observations.

This has 2 great benefits:

You can make definite predictions about the future. The theory can always be disproven, if evidence against it comes up.

For example, a commonly accepted theory until 1903 was that nothing heavier than air could fly. That’s what kept 99% of people from driving their carriages over cliffs and jumping out of windows with wings attached to their back.

According to the theory, they wouldn’t be able to fly, and some of the people who tried added credibility to that theory.

However, on December 17th that year, Orville Wright stayed in the air for 12 seconds in the gasoline aircraft he and his brother had built. When he half crashed half landed after 120 feet in the air, the theory was disproven.

Hawking loves the fact that theories can always be proven wrong in the future, and so should you. Stop assuming so much, and start finding evidence!

If you’ve ever wondered what Einstein’s theory of relativity was all about, you’ve come to the right place. The general statement of this theory is that the laws of physics are the same for all freely moving observers and objects. Because the speed of light constantly being 186,000 miles per second is one such law, it means that no matter where you are or where you’re going, the speed with which light reaches you is the same. However, time is always determined by dividing the distance something has traveled by its speed, right? For example if you take your car and drive for 100 miles at 100…