A Brief History of Time

When I consider how much I know about Dr. Stephen Hawking, I must say I know very little. I know that he is arguably one of the grandest figures within the disciplines of physics and astronomy. I am not familiar with his work so I can’t say why he is held in such high regard. I know he suffers from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and I believe that it is commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. I knew all of this information without having to wiki him. Other than that I don’t know much at all. Well, in this blog I will be discussing an excerpt from his book A Brief History of Time. In this discussion I will give a synopsis of the excerpt and what I thought of it.

This chapter deals with the formation and theories behind black holes.  I must say though the subject is interesting, the reading was not very accommodating. Throughout the chapter he uses terms that he assumes the reader knows. One term for example was Chandrasekhar limit, which I am guessing is a standard by which the astronomer can measure the weight of a star. Also, he explains how a black hole forms, but to be honest I did not catch that point until I got to the diagram that displays the components and workings of a black hole. I did, however, like the illustration he used to explain what would happen to an astronaut if he or she were to fall victim to an imploding star.  I am a visual person who always draws information gathered by my other senses, and draw some visual figure from it. Yet with his inclusion of time and signals and such, I did have a hard time following.

I understand that this is a later excerpt from his book, so some information given at this point in the text may have already been explained, but if I am not mistaken this is the only part of the book where he talks specifically about black holes. Nevertheless, I can’t say I left this reading with a better understanding of black holes. It was very hard to follow and understand exactly where he was getting at. Even when he tries to draw an illustration to help his reader better understand his concept, I still end up a tiny bit confused, because I am still trying to grasp the elements used (time, astronauts, gravity, signals etc.). I understand that I am not going to understand this subject fully, but if this is to be an effective accommodation piece then it must read as something that is trying to allow the reader to relate how colossal and grand a black hole and not just explaining it and assuming the reader will generate interest of even a better understanding just because it was written.