The Science of Interstellar

Noble prize winning Kip Thorne back at it again with yet another Great book. This book has alot of pictures to help with the concepts. Get book to go along side the movie. Great quality i wish it came in hardcover but the paperback is build well.

Christopher Nolan's 2014 film Interstellar was eagerly awaited by science fiction enthusiasts who, having been sorely disappointed so many times by movies that crossed the line into fantasy by making up entirely implausible things to move the plot along, hoped that this effort would live up to its promise of getting the science (mostly) right and employing scientifically plausible speculation where our present knowledge is incomplete.The author of the present book is one of the most eminent physicists working in the field of general relativity (Einstein's theory of gravitation) and a pioneer in exploring the exotic strong field regime of the theory, including black holes, wormholes, and gravitational radiation, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2017. Prof. Thorne was involved in the project which became Interstellar from its inception, and worked closely with the screenwriters, director, and visual effects team to get the science right. Some of the scenes in the movie, such as the visual appearance of orbiting a rotating black hole, have never been rendered accurately before, and are based upon original work by Thorne in computing light paths through spacetime in its vicinity subsequently published as professional papers.Here, the author recounts the often bumpy story of the movie's genesis and progress over the years from his own, Hollywood-outsider, perspective, how the development of the story presented him, as technical advisor (he is credited as an executive producer), with problem after problem in finding a physically plausible solution, sometimes requiring him to do new physics. Then, Thorne provides a popular account of the exotic physics on which the story is based, including gravitational time dilation, black holes, wormholes, and speculative extra dimensions and “brane” scenarios stemming from string theory. Then he “interprets” the events and visual images in the film, explaining (where possible) how they could be produced by known, plausible, or speculative physics. Of course, this isn't always possible—in some cases the needs of story-telling or the requirement not to completely baffle a non-specialist with bewilderingly complicated and obscure images had to take priority over scientific authenticity, and when this is the case Thorne is forthright in admitting so.Sections are labelled with icons identifying them as “truth”: generally accepted by those working in the field and often with experimental evidence, “educated guess”: a plausible inference from accepted physics, but without experimental evidence and assuming existing laws of physics remain valid in circumstances under which we've never tested them, and “speculation”: wild and wooly stuff (for example quantum gravity or the interior structure of a black hole) which violates no known law of physics, but for which we have no complete and consistent theory and no evidence whatsoever.This is a clearly written and gorgeously illustrated book which, for those who enjoyed the movie but weren't entirely clear whence some of the stunning images they saw came, will explain the science behind them. The cover of the book has a “SPOILER ALERT” warning potential readers that the ending and major plot details are given away in the text. I will refrain from discussing them here so as not to make this a spoiler in itself. I read the book before seeing the movie, and when I did I enjoyed it more for having read the book, since I knew what to look for in some of the visuals and was less likely to dismiss some of the apparently outrageous occurrences by knowing that there is a physically plausible (albeit extremely speculative and improbable) explanation for them.There are a few typographical errors and one factual howler: Io is not “Saturn's closest moon”, and Cassini was captured in Saturn orbit by a propulsion burn, not a gravitational slingshot (this does not affect the movie in any way: it's in background material).

I love Kip Thorne's ideas and am really looking forward to reading his book on "The Science of Interstellar". Also, loved the movie..big fan. Just got the book delivered by Amazon (the driver even rang the doorbell) packaged in a very flimsy mailer. The spine has a hole in it and there are dents on the front cover. Had the company simply boxed it or even put the book inside decent bubble wrap this would not have happened. Will not use this seller again. But, I am very much looking forward to the book!

Hopefully you don't have UPS deliver this book because I received mine with the spine torn and cover bent up. Place in a flimsy paper package which was not a good choice for a paperback book. Other than the poor shipping of UPS, the book is amazing!

This book is amazing! Interstellar is my favorite movie, and this was the perfect book to "nerd out" with and dive deeper into the scientific theories used to develop the film. It is super interesting and very easy to understand. Kip has a way of making even the most complex theories easy to understand through his writing and illustrations .

Although I haven't seen the movie yet, I bought everything about it in book form. I'm obviously a sci-fi nut. My own difference from the intended Hollywood-defined Mass Audience (Slam!) is that I have been studying gravitation theory, high-energy particle physics (Wheeler), and advanced math since the 1960s, worked at UCSD in high-energy physics, and gee whiz, got lectured by people at Cal Tech like Feynman. There, take that--I can drop names too, which this book does a helluva lot. I'm delighted to read about the people who make movies. Watching an Extra on the BLADE RUNNER Blu-ray disc yesterday reinforced what Kip Thorne says about Directors: they are gods. The Director goes with Mass Audience appeal over Truth, beauty over Truth, which is how to make money and get an Oscar for Special Effects. Nothing wrong with that. Unusual to read that Truth in a science book, however. I appreciate the updates in cosmology theory, even when they have to be labeled truth, educated guess, or speculation. There should have been a fourth circled symbol OG for when explanations were meant for Old Geezers like me. All the emphasis on colorful black boards full of symbols takes me back to the obviously-Einstein character in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, although his blackboard was just plain chalk on slate probably. In both movies, that DAY ESS and INTERSTELLAR, a blackboard full of incomprehensible (to The Mass Audience) are as much Eye Candy as the actresses. One of my Professors wrote equations with his right hand and simultaneously erased them with his left hand. Thanks to this book and its internet links, at least we can study the equations longer, until our brains float thru the branes. Funny how INTERSTELLAR has a religious or occult theme, like CONTACT bringing Arroway to her dead father, and GRAVITY bringing its heroine to prayer and thanksgiving at the end. Is it fair to ask if that trope should be labeled S? Mass Audience again will answer.