The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

Space, Time, and Motion

By: Sean Carroll

Narrated by: Sean Carroll

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

"A porthole into another world."—Scientific American

The most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts pulls back the veil of mystery that has too long cloaked the most valuable building blocks of modern science. Sean Carroll, with his genius for making complex notions entertaining, presents in his uniquely lucid voice the fundamental ideas informing the modern physics of reality.

Physics offers deep insights into the workings of the universe but those insights come in the form of equations that often look like gobbledygook. Sean Carroll shows that they are really like meaningful poems that can help us fly over sierras to discover a miraculous multidimensional landscape alive with radiant giants, warped space-time, and bewilderingly powerful forces. High school calculus is itself a centuries-old marvel as worthy of our gaze as the Mona Lisa. And it may come as a surprise the extent to which all our most cutting-edge ideas about black holes are built on the math calculus enables.

No one else could so smoothly guide listeners toward grasping the very equation Einstein used to describe his theory of general relativity. In the tradition of the legendary Richard Feynman lectures presented sixty years ago, this book is an inspiring, dazzling introduction to a way of seeing that will resonate across cultural and generational boundaries for many years to come.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with equations and visual elements from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Sean Carroll (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Well put together

It was well put together with interesting data. Too much math and at times felt like I was in school under pressure during a math quiz

A Born Teacher

In his Great Courses on Time, Dr Carroll mentions something about winning an award as a student for being able to explain difficult concepts in novel and highly effective ways. Decades on, Dr Carroll has only gotten better at this. There is something in here for everyone. We go from learning about vectors to Hamiltonian mechanics to Riemannian manifolds. If you know none of this, he'll walk you through it. If you know some of this already, that's ok too; Dr Carroll even leaves room on multiple occasions to admonish his own colleagues (once for conflating time reversal invariance and thermodynamic reversibility, and another for saying time and space switch roles inside a black hole when it is only the corresponding coordinates that do so). In addition to what is strictly scientific, there is philosophy here as well (that classical mechanics is a "theory of patterns" rather than cause-effect relations - we can work backward from a given state - is a powerful notion any physicist or engineer should get straight, as well as philosophers and laypeople alike). So read this if you like math and physics. Read this if you like philosophy. Read this if you finally want to understand the Twin "Paradox". Heck, read this as a zen koan if you must. But please read this. If Dr Carroll can read out tensors element by element (yes he does this! while also referring you to the PDF), then you can listen and understand.

Wonderful teacher!

Professor Carroll speaks clearly with simple verbiage and thoroughly goes over the current topic with historical reference to fill in the evolution of critical ideas. Wonderful!

Brilliant ! Sean makes the difficult seem easy.

Awesome as always. Sean Carroll is without a doubt rhe best I have seen at clearly explaining Physics to the curious non-physicist. Along with his Mindscape Podcast and his YouTube series', this book and most of his other brilliant writing are beyond comparison for the scientifically curious listener.

Mentally Stimulating

I love the progression Sean has made in the last 20 years. From the arrow of time, to quintessence and now the world's foremost authority on the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics. It has been a wild ride. I feel like this set of books will be the culmination of a lifetime of genius.

Although Sean has touched on all of this material before, for the first time ever we get a conceptual understanding of the math. It's like a journey into history's greatest minds from their perspectives. Audible says I've spent a solid 2 months of my life 🎧 to The Big Picture, Something Deeply Hidden and The Great Courses. All time well spent. For even more, be sure to check out his podcast, Mindscape.

If your interested in how things really work on a fundamental level Sean is the greatest teacher alive. On par with Feynman and Wheeler. You won't be disappointed in this purchase. Just push play and let Sean's characteristic voice take you on an epic adventure from the fundamentals of physics all the way out the the unexplored fringes of nature. Sean is a true poetic naturalist.

Reminds me of the Feynman lectures

This book is like letting Sean read a physics text book at you. So, my idea of a Friday night. The target audience is people who want to go beyond most popular physics books without actually picking up a textbook. Niche, but here I am.

I've been waiting for a been like this forever

finally a book that explains things not just with analogies and metaphors but also with math. big physics fan, no higher education besides tradeschool. but I have listened and watched everything related to the cosmos or partical physics for a while, and I've always wanted something beyond the beginner level. this is it. so excited for the next installment in the series. Sean carrol is a fantastic scientist and an amazing writer. people complain about the math, but after hearing the descriptions of things without the math over and over by various scientist. I really appreciate the math. very excited for this series thanks sean.

Exactly what I was looking for

After listening to many theoretical physics books, this one provided the ideas and details I was looking for. Many other books were good, but left me without unanswered questions. I am confident that this book provides me all the tools I would need. I could follow most of the material without recourse to the diagrams except for a few detailed sections. I plan on buying the hardcover as an essential reference book in my library.

Excellent explanation, grueling format

Sean Carrol expertly explains complex topics. PDF accompaniment is a must. Audiobook format is extremely difficult.

Finding the PDF using web browser and short review

The audible.com browser PDF, (note, DO SOME READING lol): Instructions to accessing the PDF are found at the end of the Publisher's Summary section, clearly visible lower down on the main page of the audiobook. Exact quote:

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with equations and visual elements from the book.
[***]PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.[***]

Check your Audible Library and you will see the View PDF button below the Listen Now button, just as it says.

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Firstly,

This isn't a fiction novel. You can't listen to it like it's a fiction novel. So probably, this isn't appropriate for car rides, house cleaning or working out. People who negatively reviewed this because they couldn't listen to it like they have other listened to things clearly didn't realize this before they made the purchase.

This type of listening experience is suitable to some and not suitable to others. So do understand that if looking at a picture here and there as reference what's being said is a deal breaker for you then this title is not suitable to your taste in audiobooks.

The purpose of this book is to impart some understanding of the equations of space, time and motion but without actually doing any math or solving any of the equations, as that isn't necessary to understand how the conclusions are reached when discussing them. Some visual references are immensely helpful in simplifying the concepts being discussed and that is why there is an accompanying PDF.

I was gaming for most of my listening time, with the PDF open on my phone, propped up beneath my monitor, so I could glance down at the PDF as needed. I can think of many other activities where a similar solution can be available.

That addressed, I'll comment on "The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion", by Sean Caroll.

This book creates excellent motion in the direction that Caroll mentions early on--the direction of increasing general basic scientific literacy as common knowledge. Because, while calculating the equations are for the scholars, the meaning and application of those equations can be grasped and be meaningful for a large segment of the overall population. You Will need to use the accompanying PDF at times to 100% follow what's being said, but if you can work basic trig and calculus then most of it is fine for just listening.

I will agree with another reviewer that this is mostly not consumable for those who consider themselves mathematically illiterate. It's possible that many people who consider that of themselves are actually capable of developing a command of mathematics. Starting (or ending up) with a conclusion that this isn't possible may yet be the only reason that it remains true. Beside that, I still encourage those who are interested to listen anyway and look along despite any such resolution, as there's plenty of interesting information available even if all the maths aren't fully grasped.

Sean Carroll did an excellent job assembling and presenting this and it's worth any extra effort it might take to follow along with what he wrote and narrated. If you love astronomy and things like satellite images of space, then this is exactly what you've been looking for!

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For others interested in similar material: A man named David Butler made a series of videos which are also created for enthusiasts like us who aren't going to learn how to calculate the equations but still love the subject and information. He started with "How Far Away Is It?", detailing the history of how humans have determined how far away things are and how this was and is done with objects in outer space. He tells the story of how we as a species learned these methods and discusses key debates and discoveries along the way.

He also went on to make "How Big Is It?", "How Small Is It?", and "How Fast Is It?" All covering what you probably assume based on my description of "How Far Away is it?". These are absolute essentials for those curious about HOW we know what we know when it comes to astronomy and the laws of nature. He spares no degree of technicality, yet it's approachable by almost any adult, which is a true blessing and it goes beyond anything achieved by the channels which pitch to the broadest audience. Those channels are great! (PBS SpaceTime, Fermilab, Arvin Ash, Astrum, Science Asylum, etc) I follow them and We Need Them. But! We also need David Butler's expertly developed videos. They are the best videos on YouTube.