A Brief History of Time
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| A Brief History of Time (1991 film) | ||
|---|---|---|
A Brief History of Time (film) | ||
| Directed by | Errol Morris | |
| Produced by | David Hickman | |
| Written by | Stephen Hawking (book) | |
| Starring | Stephen Hawking | |
| Music by | Philip Glass | |
| Cinematography | ||
| Editing by | ||
| Distributed by | ||
| Released | October, 1991 | |
| Running time | 80 min. | |
| Language | English | |
| Budget | ||
| Preceded by | {{{preceded_by}}} | |
| Followed by | {{{followed_by}}} | |
| IMDb profile | ||
A Brief History of Time is a popular science book written by Professor Stephen Hawking and first published in 1988. It rapidly became a best-seller, and had sold 9 million copies by 2002. It was also on the London Sunday Times best-seller list for a record breaking 237 weeks[1].
It attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes, light cones and superstring theory, to the nonspecialist reader. Its main goal is to give an overview of the subject but, unusually for a popular science book, it also attempts to explain some complex mathematics.
The author notes that for every equation in the book the readership will be halved, hence it includes only a single equation: E=mc².
In addition to Hawking's abstinence from equations, the book also simplifies matters by means of illustrations throughout the text, depicting complex models and diagrams.
The book is considered by many to be an "unread bestseller" [1] which is a book many people own but few have finished.
There is also a documentary by the same name, directed by Errol Morris released in 1991.
Editions
- 1996 - Illustrated, updated and expanded edition. This hardbound edition contained full color illustrations and photographs to help further explain the text, as well as the addition of topics that were not included in the original book.
- 1998 - The Tenth Anniversary Edition - Is the same text as the previous published in 1996, but was also released in paperback and has only a few diagrams included.
September of 2005 saw the release of A Briefer History of Time (a collaboration with Leonard Mlodinow), which is an abridged version of the original book. It was updated again to address new issues that have arisen due to further scientific development.
References
1. ^ Hawking, Stephen (1988). A Brief History of Time, Bantam Books. ISBN 0-55-338016-8.
