Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe

Helge Kragh

Princeton University Press, 9. mar. 2021 - 488 síður

For over three millennia, most people could understand the universe only in terms of myth, religion, and philosophy. Between 1920 and 1970, cosmology transformed into a branch of physics. With this remarkably rapid change came a theory that would finally lend empirical support to many long-held beliefs about the origins and development of the entire universe: the theory of the big bang. In this book, Helge Kragh presents the development of scientific cosmology for the first time as a historical event, one that embroiled many famous scientists in a controversy over the very notion of an evolving universe with a beginning in time. In rich detail he examines how the big-bang theory drew inspiration from and eventually triumphed over rival views, mainly the steady-state theory and its concept of a stationary universe of infinite age.


In the 1920s, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaître showed that Einstein's general relativity equations possessed solutions for a universe expanding in time. Kragh follows the story from here, showing how the big-bang theory evolved, from Edwin Hubble's observation that most galaxies are receding from us, to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Sir Fred Hoyle proposed instead the steady-state theory, a model of dynamic equilibrium involving the continuous creation of matter throughout the universe. Although today it is generally accepted that the universe started some ten billion years ago in a big bang, many readers may not fully realize that this standard view owed much of its formation to the steady-state theory. By exploring the similarities and tensions between the theories, Kragh provides the reader with indispensable background for understanding much of today's commentary about our universe.

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Cosmology and controversy: the historical development of two theories of the universe

Umsögn notanda  - Not Available - Book Verdict

Today we take it for granted that the universe began with a big bang. But this has not always been the case. Prior to its wide acceptance as the most probable origin of our universe, the big bang ...

Efni

• CHAPTER: 22
• CHAPTER THREE: 80
• CHAPTER FOUR: 142
• CHAPTER FIVE: 202
• CHAPTER: 269
• CHAPTER SEVEN: 318
• CHAPTER EIGHT: 389
• NOTES: 403
• BIBLIOGRAPHY: 447
• INDEX: 487

Um höfundinn

Helge Kragh is Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oslo. His works include a biography of P.A.M. Dirac.

Bókfræðilegar upplýsingar

• Titill: Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe
• Höfundur: Helge Kragh
• Edition: illustrated
• Útgefandi: Princeton University Press, 2021
• ISBN: 0691227713, 9780691227719
• Length: 488 síður