Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide [Hardcover]

Clifford A. Pickover (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0471125806 | ISBN-13: 978-0471125808 | Edition: 1

BLACK HOLES A TRAVELER'S GUIDE

Clifford Pickover's inventive and entertaining excursion beyond the curves of space and time.

"I've enjoyed Clifford Pickover's earlier books . . . now he has ventured into the exploration of black holes. All would-be tourists are strongly advised to read his traveler's guide." -Arthur C. Clarke.

"Many books have been written about black holes, but none surpass this one in arousing emotions of awe and wonder towards the mysterious structure of the universe." -Martin Gardner.

"Bucky Fuller thought big. Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." -Wired.

"The book is fun, zany, in-your-face, and refreshingly addictive." -Times Higher Education Supplement.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Clifford Pickover, an extraordinarily prolific and polymathic research scientist at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, has consistently been one of the most creative writers about computer graphics, scientific visualization, and mathematical models of natural and physical systems. This latest offering is classic Pickover in its wealth of information, ideas, bold speculations and and propositions -- including proposed "hands-on" experiments with black holes -- which just may turn out to be plausible. Recommended.

From Library Journal

Black holes. They're exotic, violent, mysterious-a paradoxical phenomenon not easily understood. Acclaimed author and computer artist Pickover (Mazes for the Mind, LJ 12/92) has succeeded in presenting a skillful and entertaining explanation. Through a lively dialog between imaginary space explorers, he invites the reader to participate in experiments, puzzles, and computer programs that investigate and reveal the properties of black holes. Unfortunately, to travel this realm you need a science degree for a passport. Though filled with thought-provoking literary quotations and amusing real-life analogies designed to make science accessible to the lay reader, this text is loaded with mathematical formulas and weighty topics like gravitational time dilation, blueshift, and wave recoil. Despite its good intentions, it is way over the general reader's head, but it could become a cult classic for computer junkies and the scientifically literate. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries.
Valerie Vaughan, Hatfield P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 6, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471125806
• ISBN-13: 978-0471125808
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,101,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

From my publisher:

Clifford A. Pickover received his Ph.D. from Yale University and is the author of over 30 books on such topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics, black holes, religion, human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life, and science fiction.

Pickover is a prolific inventor with dozens of patents, is the associate editor for several journals, the author of colorful puzzle calendars, and puzzle contributor to magazines geared to children and adults.

WIRED magazine writes, "Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." According to The Los Angeles Times, "Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art and thought."
The Christian Science Monitor writes, "Pickover inspires a new generation of da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." Pickover's computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular magazines and on TV shows.

His web site, Pickover.Com, has received millions of visits. His Blog RealityCarnival.Com is one of his most popular sites.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GET THE BOOK AND BEGIN YOUR OWN TRAVEL!, January 1, 2000

By 

Reinaldo Olivares - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide (Hardcover)

For over five years I've been a fond of classic physics, cuantic physics, cosmology and astrophysics. I've read the books of some of the greatest writers of these branches of science, among which I remember Stephen Hawking, Paul Davies, Roger Penrose, Albert Einstein, etc. All of these books are very complete if we talk about the information exposed by them, but they have a common characteristic (I don't know whether is a defect in fact), is highly recommendable to have a certain level of scientific knowledge in order to make good use of its content. The book featured by Clifford A. Pickover "Black Holes: A traveler's guide" is totally different to those that I've read before. Is a complete, funny and, overcoat, is easily understandable by anybody. At the beginning of each chapter there are presented dialogs (between the reader and an alien called Mr. Plex) with the purpose of giving the main idea of what is coming up next. In the same way, almost all chapters make reference to simple formulas that describe the most relevant aspects about the behavior of black holes. Besides the main subject (black holes), the author took charge of showing in a briefly manner another "not less important" subjects of astrophysics and cosmology. I had never understood many of the formulas presented until I read this book. When you begin to read it, you begin a journey to the marvelous structure of one of the strangest and most fascinating things in the whole universe, a black hole. Is the best book that I've ever seen about this topics and I believe that somebody difficultly overcome the clear, precise and funny style of writing of Clifford A. Pickover. GET THE BOOK AND BEGIN YOUR OWN TRAVEL!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy trails...., March 15, 2000

By 

D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide (Paperback)

The term "black hole" was coined by the Princeton physicist John Archibald Wheeler. What, exactly, a black hole is (if there even is such a thing) has been a source of debate and confusion for decades. Clifford Pickover inserts you as the main character of this book. You are on a spaceship (complete with aliens) way the heck in the future & your ship is near a black hole. So, you & your friends decide to do a close (literally) study of the cosmic anomaly.

The story is entertaining & has many didactic features. Pickover also inserts some humor so as to make the book enjoyable as opposed to a dense treatise of rather complex mathematical concepts. Also, at the end of each chapter is a section called "The science behind the science fiction." It is a detailed account of what we presently know (or think we know) about the notions which were presented in the narrative.

And, the concepts are many. We learn of various weird things that happen in & near a black hole, such as time slowing, the "shrinking" of one's perspective due to the singularity & the mind-numbing gravitational power which is projected by black holes.....a gravity field so immense that the escape velocity exceeds light speed. We learn how black holes were predicted by Einstein's theory of Relativity as well as how the many principles of quantum mechanics come into the picture when one is attempting to understand the nature of singularities.

Much of this book is speculation, but it is educated speculation. The conjectures on what happens inside of a singularity, as well as the possiblity of wormholes which lead to other universes & dimensions is exciting & based on our best available current knowledge of the cosmos. As an added bonus, there is a chapter in the back of the book in which many of the world's leading cosmologists answer questions posed by the author on various topics about & related to black holes. There are also computer animation pictures of some of the more dazzling geometrical effects that are generated by black holes. For anyone who is planning to visit a black hole anytime soon, this book is a must.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book for General Readers, August 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide (Hardcover)

This book is full of useful information about black holes that is presented in a fun manner. The dialog at the beginning of each chapter makes the reader understand the topic fairly easily. The equations were added for a more scientific approach, but you don't have to understand them to understand the theories. This book is very good for readers interested in Black Holes, but not the physics of them. I would not suggest this book to people who have studied physics or astrophysics if they are looking for a mathematical explanation of Black Holes. It often repeats itself because it is guided towards people with an interest in the subject but are not really interested in the math and physics of it all.

Overall it is an excellent overview of Black Holes, and a joy to read!