God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe (Hardcover)

by Amir D. Aczel (Author) "Saul Perlmutter sat in his office high in the Berkeley hills overlooking the San Francisco Bay and watched the sun set below the Golden Gate..." (more)
Key Phrases: funny energy, inflationary universe theory, probationary lecture, New York, Albert Einstein, Milky Way (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Who would have thought a mathematical constant would make such an engaging character? God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe, mathematician Amir Aczel's tale of the search for a scientific explanation of the universe, features the cosmological constant in a role as complex as Einstein's. The great genius referred to it as his "greatest blunder," but recent events in the world of astrophysics have brought the prodigal term back into the fold as an important part of his field equation. Aczel is a powerful storyteller, and makes no secret of his admiration for Einstein; much of the book revolves around his conquest of general relativity. Integrating relativity with gravitation was no easy task (even for Einstein), but the author deftly steers the reader away from the sticky stuff and focuses attention on concepts of importance.

Aczel shows Einstein's aesthetic troubles with the cosmological constant, which preceded theoretical and experimental problems leading to its abandonment. The universe was caught in the act of expansion by Edwin Hubble, and the constant, originally invoked to maintain a steady-state universe, was unnecessary. Fortunately, though, the mathematics underlying the constant had become important tools for physicists; observations in 1997 and 1998 by Saul Perlmutter, Neta Bahcall, and others showed that the universe will continue expanding indefinitely and sent theorists back to the drawing board to revise their equations. The cosmological constant returned triumphant, and while its inventor might never have approved of it, today's scientific community gives it an honored role in God's Equation. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
For decades, scientists have debated whether the universe will eventually collapse upon itself, will expand until it reaches an optimal size and remain steady, or will expand forever. To most everyone's surprise, studies of particular huge supernovae are providing evidence that the last possibility may be right and that billions of years from now the universe will be an unimaginably immense void of burned-out stars. The explanation for this may lie in the "cosmological constant," a part of Einstein's field equation for general relativity. Though Einstein described the constant as the greatest blunder of his career, many scientists now think that it could correctly represent some kind of "funny energy" pushing the universe apart. Aczel (Fermat's Last Theorem; Probability 1) contends that Einstein's equation for the cosmological constant is our best approximation of what he calls "God's equation": the ultimate summary of how the universe works. Though Aczel's analysis of Einstein's work requires familiarity with advanced mathematics, that analysis makes up only a minor portion of his book, and most readers will appreciate the author's inclusion of the great physicist's letters to astronomer Erwin Freundlich. Translated here for the first time, they give a glimpse of Einstein's ambition and of his occasional indifference toward collaborators who were no longer useful to him. Aczel's writing is marred by his proclivity to make hyperbolic statements ("Einstein became one of the greatest celebritiesApossibly the greatestAthe world has ever known"), and some of his historical observations are na?ve. Those fascinated by Einstein will find much of interest here, but general readers hungry for information about recent developments in cosmology may want to consult more accessible authors, such as John Gribbin (The Case of the Missing Neutrinos). Figures not seen by PW. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568581394
• ISBN-13: 978-1568581392
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,078,508 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant surprise - short and light, June 13, 2000

By	Vincent Toolan (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had expected this book (foolishly judging it by the cover) to present a new theological interpretation of cosmology, or perhaps a theory based on new astronomical observations. In fact it seems as if Aczel had the title "God's Equation" thrust on him by a publisher eager for more sales.

The book is actually a pretty enjoyable and readable introduction to special and general relativity, interwoven with some more modern physics and plenty of anecdotes about Einstein's life.

The author has conducted unique research of his own, commissioning his father to translate some of Einstein's previously unpublished letters. And so an intriguing character sketch emerges, blended seamlessly with the science. It dwells at length on the "greatest blunder", the cosmological constant, which is still debated by cosmologists today.

The explanations of the physics are really rather good. I would highly recommend this book to someone who's after an easier read than Hawking's Brief History of Time, and not yet ready for the Elegant Universe.

A very personal, thoughtful, and welcome book.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning read, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

It's not Aczel who first brings up God, it's Einstein. One of the most thought-provoking things about this book is that for all our research and increasingly detailed knowledge of the way things work, most physicists are convinced that some sort of Creative Power underlies the workings of the universe. As a physicist and professor myself, I am impressed at the way Aczel clearly -- poetically, even -- lays out some of the more complicated cutting-edge concepts of contemporary science. He's extensively interviewed some of the most prominent figures in the field, and his good research (except for a couple of what I presume are typos regarding historical dates) shows. The previous reviewer must have some personal bone to pick with the author, because he/she and I didn't read the same book. Do read it; it will give you a glimpse -- however fleeting -- into the mind of one of humanity's greatest (Einstein): and therefore, perhaps, a glimpse at the awe-inspiring workings of the cosmos.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read..., July 27, 2000

By	John Rummel (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Aczel, whose book about Fermat's last theorem was an enjoyable romp through the history of mathematics, now turns his attention to Einstein's theory of general relativity and its implications for cosmology. Based on his work with some historians who are taking a fresh look at Einstein's life and work through recently discovered notebooks and correspondence (Renn, Stachel, et.al), Aczel is able to reveal some previously unknown factoids about the 20th century's greatest scientist. For example, a previously unknown notebook from about 1912 reveals that Einstein had produced his field equation for gravitation nearly 3 years earlier than its final publication in 1915. Apparently Einstein was not convinced of the accuracy of this equation, for he abandoned it, only to rederive it 3 years later with apparently no recollection that he'd been there before. Aczel also spends some effort refuting the popular myth that Einstein was no good at mathematics. He was a superb mathematician, says Aczel, and largely self-taught, which speaks to his agile intellect and intuitive sense for fruitful areas of research.

Unlike any other biographies of Einstein or expositions of relativity that I've read, Aczel takes a "mathematician's eye view" of general relativity, and spends considerable time tracing the development of the geometry of curved space through Gauss, Reimann, and several other lessor known contributors. He also reveals, which I had not known previously, that Einstein kept up an ongoing correspondence with the legendary British mathematician David Hilbert, and that Hilbert published some work of his own based on early copies of Einstein's field equations. This incident has apparently been fodder for considerable historiagraphical debate, and was only recently settled that there was no plagarism or other funny business occurring on the part of either man.

God's Equation is not all Einstein, however. Aczel also introduces us to many of the nagging questions in modern cosmology, and astronomers' attempts to reconcile the recently discovered accelerating expansion of the universe with current theories. Astronomer Saul Perlmutter is central to the story's recent developments, whose supernova observing program lent considerable weight to the accelerating expansion scenario. Taking center stage for this discussion is the resurrection of the cosmological constant, Einstein's famous "blunder," which Aczel argues, has never really left cosmology. As modern astronomers have looked further and further into the universe and back in time, the cosmological constant seems more and more necessary to some theorists, as a repulsive force to counteract the attractive force of gravity (which is itself a brute simplification, since anybody familiar with general relativity knows that gravity is not a force at all, but rather a result of curved spacetime).

Overall, I do recommend this book, though I'm frustrated that Aczel didn't do much more with this opportunity. This book could have easily been twice as long. I get the sense that he was hurried to get it to print for some reason, passing over stories that begged for further clarification (more, for instance, on the eclipse expeditions so central to providing proof for general relativity, and less on the roots of World War I, which delayed the expeditions). All in all, it's an excellent addition to the existing material on Einstein's life and work, and a teaser for more detail on what's really going on in modern cosmology (in the last two or three years, particularly). It makes me hunger for some publications based on Renn and Stachel's work on Einstein. I found a few typographical errors (in a discussion about the effect of Minkowski's lectures on Einstein while at the ETH, he gives a date for Minkowski's birth four years after Einstein published his paper on special relativity).