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The cover of The First Three Minutes

The First Three Minutes

Steven Weinberg

What was the universe like at the end of the first second, the first minute or the first year?

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At a glance

Author
Steven Weinberg

Why read it

  • You will understand the two discoveries, an expanding universe and a faint radiation filling space, that made the Big Bang the standard model
  • You will see what physicists can work out numerically, such as temperature, density and chemical makeup at a given time
  • You will judge how much confidence the story deserves, since the author admits we are not absolutely certain

Who it is for

  • A curious reader who wants the Big Bang explained without equations
  • A science teacher looking for a classic account of cosmology
  • A physics student wondering how particle physics meets cosmology

Contents

  1. Preface
  2. Preface to the Second Paper Edition
  3. I
  4. INTRODUCTION: THE GIANT AND THE COW
  5. II
  6. THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
  7. III
  8. THE COSMIC MICROWAVE RADIATION BACKGROUND
  9. IV
  10. RECIPE FOR A HOT UNIVERSE
  11. V
  12. THE FIRST THREE MINUTES
  13. VI
  14. A HISTORICAL DIVERSION
  15. VII
  16. THE FIRST ONE-HUNDREDTH SECOND
  17. VIII
  18. EPILOGUE: THE PROSPECT AHEAD
  19. Photo Sections
  20. A Mathematical Supplement
  21. Afterword: Cosmology Since 1977
  22. Suggestions for Further Reading

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