The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe | 
 enlarge | Author: Roger Penrose
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Rating:  157 reviews
Sales Rank: 34849
Media: Paperback
Pages: 1136
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 2.2
ISBN: 0679776311
Dewey Decimal Number: 530.1
EAN: 9780679776314
Publication Date: January 9, 2007
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If Albert Einstein were alive, he would have a copy of The Road to Reality on his bookshelf. So would Isaac Newton. This may be the most complete mathematical explanation of the universe yet published, and Roger Penrose richly deserves the accolades he will receive for it. That said, let us be perfectly clear: this is not an easy book to read. The number of people in the world who can understand everything in it could probably take a taxi together to Penrose's next lecture. Still, math-friendly readers looking for a substantial and possibly even thrillingly difficult intellectual experience should pick up a copy (carefully--it's over a thousand pages long and weighs nearly 4 pounds) and start at the beginning, where Penrose sets out his purpose: to describe "the search for the underlying principles that govern the behavior of our universe." Beginning with the deceptively simple geometry of Pythagoras and the Greeks, Penrose guides readers through the fundamentals--the incontrovertible bricks that hold up the fanciful mathematical structures of later chapters. From such theoretical delights as complex-number calculus, Riemann surfaces, and Clifford bundles, the tour takes us quickly on to the nature of spacetime. The bulk of the book is then devoted to quantum physics, cosmological theories (including Penrose's favored ideas about string theory and universal inflation), and what we know about how the universe is held together. For physicists, mathematicians, and advanced students, The Road to Reality is an essential field guide to the universe. For enthusiastic amateurs, the book is a project to tackle a bit at a time, one with unimaginable intellectual rewards. --Therese Littleton
Product Description
Roger Penrose, one of the most accomplished scientists of our time, presents the only comprehensive and comprehensible account of the physics of the universe. From the very first attempts by the Greeks to grapple with the complexities of our known world to the latest application of infinity in physics, The Road to Reality carefully explores the movement of the smallest atomic particles and reaches into the vastness of intergalactic space. Here, Penrose examines the mathematical foundations of the physical universe, exposing the underlying beauty of physics and giving us one the most important works in modern science writing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 152 more reviews...
 A panorama of science. February 26, 2005
Palle E T Jorgensen (Iowa City, Iowa United States)
485 out of 516 found this review helpful
It's a delicate balance for book: Encyclopedic vs well focused on a unifying theme!
Penrose succeeds admirably. It's not boring! Books like this are few and far between. Indeed, there are preciously few authors who manage to successfully guide beginning students into serious scientific topics; and even fewer who can see the big picture, and do it all. And then keeping our attention through more than 1000 pages! Penrose's book is inspiring, informative, exciting; and at the same time it's honest about what math and physics are. It is modest when modesty is called for. You are not cheated. You do get the equations (not just hand waving!), but you are gently prepared in advance, so you will want the mathematical formulae. Penrose's book is likely to help high school students getting started in science; and to inspire and inform us all. There is something for everyone: for the beginning student in math or in physics, for the educated layman/woman (perhaps the students' parents), for graduate students, for teachers, for scientists, for researchers; and the list goes on.
It is one of the very few books of this scope that is not intimidating. Not in the least!
I can't begin to do justice to this terrific book. Get it, and judge for yourself. I will also not give away the ending, other than saying that the title of the book is a good hint. And you will be able to form your own take, and your own ideas on the conclusion. Like with all good and subtle endings, they can be understood and appreciated at several levels.
I came across Penrose's book in my bookstore by accident, and I was at first apprehensive: The more than 1000 pages, and the 3.3 pounds are enough to intimidate anyone. But when I started to read, I found myself unable to put it down. And I didn't: Bought it; and I had several days of enjoyable reading. I am not likely to put it away to collect dust either. It is the kind of book you will want to keep using, and to return to.
It will not surprise that one of Penrose's unifying themes is the compelling and pleasing geometric images that underlie both the mathematics (roughly one third of the book: modern geometry, Riemann surfaces, complex functions, Fourier analysis, visions of infinity), and the physics: Cosmology (the big bang, black holes), gravity, thermodynamics, relativity (classical and modern: loop quantum gravity, twisters), and quantum theory (wave-particle duality, atomic spectra, coherence, measurements).
The pictures: In fact, this semester, I was just teaching a graduate course, and I had a hard time presenting of Riemann surfaces in an attractive way. It's a subject that typically comes across as intimidating in many of the classical books: Take Herman Weyl's book, for example. I also found it refreshing to see that Roger Penrose gave the many illustrations his own personal and artistic touch; as opposed to having flashy pictures generated by the latest in color-graphics and special effects. I think readers will relate better to Penrose's own illustrations: They isolate and highlight the core ideas and they are not intimidating: We sense that we ourselves would have been able to make similar pencil sketches. Or at least we are encouraged to try!
The common theme in the pictures serves to bring to life the underlying and fundamental ideas;--- another attractive feature of the book! It is otherwise easy to get lost in some of the equations, and in the encyclopedic panorama of topics. Review by Palle Jorgensen, February 2005.
A paradise for autodidacts February 26, 2005
Royce E. Buehler (Cambridge, MA USA)
58 out of 64 found this review helpful
The stunningly ambitious subtitle to Penrose's latest gift to the world, "A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe", is at one and the same time tongue in cheek, since Penrose is cheerfully aware of how far we are yet from knowing the deepest laws of the universe, and perfectly serious, since Penrose wants to equip the diligent reader with the tools to understand all the central issues at the frontiers of 21st century physics.
The key word here is "diligent". How tough is this book? For anyone with three or four years of university math under their belt, it will be pretty straightforward going, with tons of beauties and "ah-hahs" along the way. Penrose aims to provide the central intuitions, and not get bogged down in petty details. As one of a handful of the world's premiere mathematical physicists, he has a firm (and all the more valuable for being slightly idiosyncratic) grasp on what is truly central, and that lets him condense his enormous subject into a mere 1040 pages.
He provides just enough in the way of exercises, unobtrusively tucked into footnotes and handily classified as easy, medium, and hard, to let you check that you are really following along. When dealing with tensors and bundles, which are the language of general relativity and of all the unified theories, he takes care to say most things three times: in the coordinate free language preferred by mathematicians, in the "Einstein summation convention" language preferred by physicists, and in his own diagrammatic notation; so he gives you three chances to get it.
His intent is to be accessible to anyone who isn't mathphobic. A determined reader with a rough grasp of basic calculus concepts is likely to find he has achieved that intent. The learning curve is steep, but all the steps are in place. If you've read any two of Penrose's "Emperor's New Mind", Green's "Elegant Universe", and Hawking's "Brief History of Time", and found them stimulating rather than daunting, then you're ready to tackle this one.
The book deals with all the mathematical machinery it will need in the first 300-odd pages. Relativity follows, then quantum theory, then particle physics and quantum field theory, then cosmology. Penrose always has a fresh perspective, spending a few paragraphs to take a step or two back for a broader, more philosophical view of the territory than the textbooks offer; but all this material, up to page 780, has become standard physics.
Then the pure fun begins. Roger Penrose has never allowed his considerable stature to get in the way of the pleasure of contrarianism, and his take on the Big Kabloona Question, how to reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity, is as well defended as it is unusual. His longest chapter respectfully spells out the details of the most popular approach to a unified theory, that of strings and branes. But he has always been skeptical of string theory, not just on grounds of verifiability, but also because he feels it fails to involve complex numbers at its foundation. So Road To Reality provides extensive summaries of two leading rival theories: loop quantum gravity, and the twistor theory which Sir Roger and his students have developed over the last several decades. He also discusses at length the notion he originally proposed in "Shadows of the Mind", that gravitational fields may be responsible for the collapse of Schroedinger wave packets.
No volume with the ambitions of this one has existed until now, and no one is better equipped than Penrose to achieve those ambitions, nor could one ask for a more congenial companion or a livelier guide. It belongs on the shelf of every one who aspires to know the real skinny on where physics is, and where it is likely to go in the near future.
Wonderful And Challenging, But Well Worth The Effort February 27, 2005
G. Reid (Roseland, NJ)
31 out of 41 found this review helpful
It helps if you like mathematics. The first one-third of the book is a "course" in mathematics to help explain the laws of the universe. This book is extraordinary in that it will hold your attention through over 1000 pages on a challenging subject matter. The author, Roger Penrose, takes great care as you proceed through the book to prepare you for the science that lies ahead. The book needs to be read in the order presented and each section needs to be understood before going on to the next section.
Penrose's book is exciting, informative and hopefully will turn new students on to the joys of scientific learning. The book is likely to get new high school students excited about science so they can go on to careers in cosmology, chemistry, biology, medicine and the other sciences. There is something for everyone in this book and the author has gone to great effort to make the material available to the layperson.
For the reader the best part of the book comes in the 2nd half after the reader learns the basics in the 1st half. The reader learns about classical physics, relativity, quantum mechanics, string theory, twisters, gravity, black holes, the big bang and much more. The bottom line is that the book is never boring, but it certainly is challenging.
Brain Stretching! A Beautiful and Inspirational Summary By A Scientist Clearly Awed by the Universe July 2, 2006
Dr. Richard G. Petty (Atlanta)
24 out of 28 found this review helpful
Having thoroughly enjoyed The Emperor's New Mind and Shadows of the Mind, I was looking forward to this book by Roger Penrose. I was initially slightly intimidated by the book when it arrived: it looked suspiciously like one of those textbooks that I'd had to wade through years ago. But I need not have worried. The book is a model of clarity, and you do not need to be put off by the equations.
Roger Penrose is a member of a prodigiously talented family and a former collaborator of Stephen Hawking. He has a remarkable ability for explaining complex concepts, and his passion for his subject shines through.
I think that many people will be surprised at the amount of progress that has been made toward a comprehensive model of the physical universe. Penrose is extremely good at connecting the dots: showing how different areas of mathematics fit together. Just over twenty years ago I was asked to give a lecture about the brain and consciousness to a lay audience. During the question and answer session, I was asked something that set a group of us off in a new direction. "Why," I was asked, "Are these models complicated? Any true insights into the natural world should be simple enough for a child to understand." Is that really true, I wondered? Is it really possible to reduce the brain or the physical universe to a small number of ideas that could be explained in a high school textbook? The answer is, I think, no. And certainly on the evidence of Roger Penrose's book, the universe is multi-layered, and we need some sophistication to understand it.
This book does require intellectual effort, but it is well worth it. A bit of brain stretching is good for all of us! Unless you are a die hard math or physics buff, I recommend reading the book in small bite size chunks and contemplating what you have learned. That way it almost becomes a daily meditation. After a little while, you will probably find yourself looking forward to the next installment.
This is a book to which you want to return, and I think that it will be remembered as a classic long after many popular science books have been remaindered.
Highly recommended.
Likely will become one of the Great Books: Buy it! May 19, 2006
H. Martin (Austin, TX United States)
28 out of 31 found this review helpful
The short version: If you are reading reviews in consideration of purchasing this book then just BUY IT.
It has long been my wish for someone to a write a popular treatment of modern physics, one which includes the math, starts at the beginning, and then covers whatever is needed so that the reader can understand the theories described.
For me, reading physics is fun; it is not a path to "becoming a physicist", but I want something beyond the popular science level. My goal is to become a READER of real physics, and I am willing to work to reach this goal.
This wish describes "The Road to Reality" almost perfectly.
Penrose literally intends to take the reader from basic math through calculus, and on to field theory, Lie Groups/Algebras, calculus of variations (Lagrangians & Hamiltonians), differential geometry with fiber bundles, and tensor analysis. He plans and prepares to explain both quantum physics and general relativity (gravity.)
This book is both a popular science guide and introductory mathematics text (including introductions to advance subjects) at the same time.
The book is a wondrous delight, while simultaneously being maddening for its flaws.
If there were there a thousand similar books, it would be easy to criticise the flaws. The writing is at times simply awful (the worst and most common offense is 'pre-shadowing' for no useful purpose -- and without clearly warning the perhaps already struggling reader). Much of the math details are simple skipped or hand-waved, but the outline and structure provided for mathematical physics is both useful and significant With great persistence by the reader it is understandable. One reads this book both for what it contains, and also for the gateways it will open to other books.
The book likely deserves only four stars, but due to it's unique nature I awarded the fifth as a reward for attempting and coming very close to what most would consider impossible.
On the other hand, any criticism that it is "incomplete" (the subtitle says the "complete guide to the laws of the universe") is unrealistic and similar to criticizing a "complete guide to Europe" or "a complete guide to fishing" for not listing every hotel or restaurant, or for not including a picture of every fish and a map of every body of water.
'Complete' here means comprehensive and full in coverage and scope, not that every detail is specified.
As to criticisms concerning Penrose's idiosyncratic views on physics, he is ABSOLUTELY clear when stating a personal opinion, or covering topics from his own point of view. His own less popular ideas for final theories in physics are a very small portion of the entire book. Pensore clearly delineates his own ideas whenever he mentions them in other sections.
[A little about me, but only as a point of reference, might help you evaluate this review since those with significant college math and physics or those with no background in these subjects will approach this book differently: My prior background only includes high school calculus and physics, though I've read many popular physics titles. At the start, I was mathematically naive at the university level, but I was also completely undaunted by the prospect of learning the math and physics.]
If you buy this book [highly recommend you do] just read it.
Promise yourself that you will keep reading; determine to force your way through no matter what obstacles you encounter. If you have an interest in physics the rewards are immense.
Using the book as a tour guide, outline, overview, and foundation you can find resources freely available on the Internet, or available for sale here on Amazon, to actually LEARN to READ physics.
You should not expect to "become a physicist" without much more study, but you can develop a reading knowledge of the subject beyond the popular treatments, including the mathematics of tensor analysis, differential geometry, and group theory.
An encouragement and warning to young people interested in Physics and Math (as well as those who might buy this book for them) is warranted: If you really want to read this book and work very hard it is possible, but forcing yourself (or being forced) to read it before you have either significant mathematicsal knownlodge and/or the ability to study and develope such know on your own is not a good idea.
This book could convince the beginning student of physics or math that these subjects are more difficult than they actually are. Instead they are rather more like any significant skills: they takes some ability, some time to develop, and above all they require careful and persistent work on your part.
Currently (three months after starting), I have finished the book (took two months for this) and also reached a rough, reading competence with advanced calculus, differential equations, lie groups/algebras, complex analysis, Lagrangians & Hamiltonians, and can now read introductory quantum mechanics texts and papers.
Since reading this book, I have made a good start on Tensor Analysis and Differential Geometry. My estimate is about one year for me to fully understand the book and its topics, but the effort is well worth the results already.
Even though, I have sought and used many other sources to improve my understanding, my successes are directly due to the incredible foundation provided by Penrose.
In addition, I highly recommend "Deep Down Things" by Schumm, who is much more clear, but less mathematical, on Lie Groups and Gauge Theory. Schumm relates Lie theory directly to Gauge Symmetries, going beyond mere hand-waving while still remaining mathematically simple and clear.
I further recommend "Understanding Quantum Physics" by Morrison which offers a much better guided, and step-by-step, introduction to the mathematics and postulates of Quantum Mechanics. (Only real criticism of Morrison is that there are NO solutions for exercise, but he does work many other problems in detail.)
Although I bought Morrison's book several years ago and was unable/unwilling to read it, I can now read this one comfortably -- it's not a novel, but it is no longer a fight to read.
Neither of these excellent books offers the scope of Penrose however, so read "The Road to Reality" first. (I might have missed the beauty of Schumm's treatment of Lie groups and Gauge theory had I encounted it first.)
I am also working through "Quantum Mechanics Demystified" and "Relativity Demystified" both by David McMahon, and "A First Course in General Relativity" by Bernard F. Schutz.
[Five months after starting Penrose's book, I now feel comfortable in reading the very imposing "Gravitation" by Misner, Thorne, Wheeler (MTW).]
When I have finished these, my plan is to read "Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell" by A. Zee and move on to Zwiebach's String Theory book.
Notice that if you don't have the background in math or physics then this book is going to lead you to reading many others and learning many new topics. This truly great book doesn't end the journey but rather opens new worlds and capabilities for the interested reader.
If you are asking "Should I buy it?", then: Yes, JUST BUY IT.
If you do buy it, then JUST READ IT. No matter how long it takes you or how difficult it seems at time just keep reading....
You will be delighted to finish this book, and disappointed that it ends -- expect both emotions at the same time.
Thank you Roger Penrose!
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