The Universe Explained to My Grandchildren
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
When on a summer evening, astrophysicist Hubert Reeves went for a walk with his granddaughter, he was immediately assaulted by her questions: 'How big is the Universe? How far are the stars? Are there other universes like ours?'.
This little book is the result of their discussion - a very clear and fulfilling explanation on where we come from and our place in the Universe. Here is a perfect occasion for everybody, and not only children, to revise their conceptions about the cosmos.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is a fantastic account of some deep and fundamental questions that most of us had already asked ourselves before. It is done through multiple conversations between a man and his granddaughter.
I clearly do not believe all the question from the book were literally asked by the child, maybe just a few, but it is to me a very subtle literary device to explain what the author is trying to convey.
In my opinion, this is a much better book than Astrophysics For People in a Hurry by Neil deGrayson. It is more engaging and Although it has some of the same weakness in not going much deeper, I adventure to say that it does the job better in explaining every subject.
The guy is also an astrophysics, but I like how he articulates the ideas better. Some of the questions he is "asked" by his granddaughter are things like what are the stars made of, how can we tell the age of the sun, how distant are the galaxies and one very important, how do we know that is true or not.
The target according to the author is mainly 14 years old teens. In short, this is a very short but good overview of intriguing questions about our universe to pique the interest of young people but also for older ones to have the tools to do the same with their children and grandchildrens when the moment arrives.