Three Hundred Years of Gravitation

Stephen Hawking, W. Israel

Cambridge University Press, 1987 - Science - 684 pages

To commemorate the 300th anniversary of the publication of Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Stephen Hawking and Werner Israel assembled a series of unique review papers by many of the world's foremost researchers in cosmology, relativity, and particle physics. The resulting volume reflects the significant and exciting advances that have been made in these fields since the editors' acclaimed volume, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey (CUP 1979). Newton's immense contribution to the physical sciences is assessed, and its relevance to today's physics made clear. The international group of contributors then chart the major developments in the study of gravitation, from Newtonian gravity to black hole physics. In the fields of galaxy formation, inflationary and quantum cosmology, and superstring unification, the book provides important overviews written by workers involved in the many advances described. By shaping such a wide-ranging and scholarly series of articles into a cohesive whole, the editors have created a fitting and lasting memorial to the man who continues to inspire scientists the world over.

Contents

• Newtonianism and todays physics: 5
• Newton quantum theory and reality: 17
• R Penrose: 18
• References: 48
• R Blandford: 50
• Experimental gravitation from Newtons Principia to Einsteins: 80
• The problem of motion in Newtonian and Einsteinian gravity: 128
• The Masters Lodge Selwyn College Cambridge: 130
• the evolution of an idea: 199
• J Rees: 201
• A Guth: 214
• S W Hawking: 276
• Astrophysical black holes: 277
• Gravitational radiation: 330
• galaxy formation: 459
• Gravitational interactions of cosmic strings: 499
• Inflationary cosmology: 524
• S Weinberg: 546
• Inflation and quantum cosmology: 604
• Avadh Bhatia Physics Laboratory University of Alberta Edmonton T6G 2J1 Canada: 606
• Quantum cosmology: 631
• Superstring unification: 652
• Covariant description of canonical formalism in geometrical: 676
• E Witten: 678

About the author

Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford, England on January 8, 1942. He received a first class honors degree in natural science from Oxford University and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He was a theoretical physicist and has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University from 1982 until his death. In 1974, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific organization. In 1963, he learned he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neuromuscular wasting disease also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The disease confined him to a wheelchair and reduced his bodily control to the flexing of a finger and voluntary eye movements, but left his mental faculties untouched. He became a leader in exploring gravity and the properties of black holes. He wrote numerous books including A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Black Holes and Baby Universes, On the Shoulders of Giants, A Briefer History of Time, The Universe in a Nutshell, The Grand Design, and Brief Answers to the Big Questions. In 1982, he was named a commander of the British Empire. A film about his life, The Theory of Everything, was released in 2014 and was based on his first wife Jane Hawking's book Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen. He died on March 14, 2018 at the age of 76.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Three Hundred Years of Gravitation; Philosophiae Naturalis, Principia Mathematica
• Editors: Stephen Hawking, W. Israel
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1987
• ISBN: 0521379768, 9780521379762
• Length: 684 pages
• Subjects: Science / Physics / General; Science / Physics / Gravity; Science / Space Science / Cosmology