The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe | 
 enlarge | Author: Roger Penrose
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £17.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 6157
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 1140
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 2.4
ISBN: 0099440687
EAN: 9780099440680
ASIN: 0099440687
Publication Date: February 2, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
 Infinitely difficult, and infinitely rewarding! January 1, 2009
To my amazement, I have got as far as Chapter 32 of this book, and there seems every chance I will actually finish it!
This is the most difficult book I have ever read, by a long way. But it's full of reward and meaning. The chapter on Dirac's equation made me shoud out loud with amazement (much to the puzzlement of my fellow travellers on a rural bus in Chile).
One dissappoitmtnt was the section on Quantum Field Theory, which I found almost incomprehensible. The section on string theory was something of a hatchet job but it explained many aspects and results of the theory, as well as its difficulties.
Overall, I ah grateful to find a book which explains some of mankind's greatest achievements in a way which is (sometimes) comprehensible, without lapsing into baby talk.
 Approach with caution, you are entering a (very) strange world ... December 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had great hopes of this book. Its title was certainly ambitious, but the review quotes on the cover seemed enouraging. Even more encouraging were Prof Penrose's breezy reassurances in his preface. The reasonably intelligent reader would get something out of it, no matter what his mathematical abilities - any anyway, you'll find you are more mathematical than you thought. Well, I had first year undergraduate Pure Mathematics, though some years ago, and I am keenly interested in his basic quest - to explain how mathematics can possibly relate to the real world - so I proudly puffed out my chest and ploughed on. It was soon apparent that you would need more advanced (and more recent) mathematics even to follow the prose of this book. There is a plethora of phrases such as "It is evident that...", "It is clear that ..." and "so we get X", preceding statements, which, despite re-readings (and vain appeals for help from more recent science graduates) remain utterly obscure to those without a prior insight into the subtlties of the areas he discusses. He skips along from complex numbers to their representation in Cartesian terms (I'm still with him at this point), through their polar representation (still there) and via a decent discourse on the exponential, until he suddenly flips into their logarithmic representation, whose derivation defeats me, and lots of consequences, which are even less clearly explained. On the way, he cheerily remarks on "intersting" asides which, while certainly interesting, are again mere fiats with no illumination (other than a suggestion, at the bottom of the page, that the interested reader prove it him/herself). The worrying thing is that all of this he anticipates will be fundamental to later expositions of physics etc. The plain fact of the matter is that book can only be of interest to naturally talented or highly trained mathematicians, and probably only to those who know the science areas anyway (as I guess most of the gushing reviewers on the cover were). Perhaps the topic is too amitious, but might there not be room for an edition in which any "it is evident that ..." is referenced to an explanation for which only A-level maths is required? I certainly hope so, for Prof Penrose has mapped out the structure of such a book.
very difficult masterwork September 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Many of the reviews focus on the fact that this book is difficult to read. It is. The information content is dense. Arguably not as dense as a technical math or physics book, this is a technical work, and requires a very slow process of reading and re-reading.
My opinion is that those with an understanding of calculus will get the most out of this book. If you really do not understand partial derivatives and integrals, I think you're in for a tough road.
There was math in this book that was unfamiliar to me, specifically Lie algebras, Lie derivatives, calculus on manifolds, and fiber bundles. These chapters were very slow going.
However, if you assiduously go through every sentence until you understand its meaning, if you consult outside references as necessary, if you really absorb this material- it is phenomenal. Penrose will equip you with a visual and intuitive comprehension of the advanced math necessary to really understand the big theories of physics. You won't be able to do calculations and solve problems, but the intuitive understanding is primary- and if you decide to go farther and look into really solving physics problems, you will be ready to learn quickly and easily.
In terms of the breadth and scope, I could compare this to the Feynman lectures. Feynman was far less stiff in his explanations- but if you really follow Penrose, his presentation is both elegant and thorough.
The book splits into 3 sections. The math background is followed by a very fine summary of the two big theories of modern physics- relativity and quantum mechanics. Finally, at about page 700, Penrose starts to discuss speculative ideas on the frontiers of physics. He carefully denotes where his own ideas differ from those of other theorists. By this time, having laid a full groundwork, Penrose addresses the reader as almost a technical peer. This is not dumbed down.
This is a book to live in for a long time. There is nothing else quite like it. The rewards justify the large amount of reader time and effort that will need to be committed. Five stars, absolutely.
Fantastic Book, though not for the true layman May 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a real tour-de-force. My A-Level Maths of 18 Months ago was definetley a sufficient starting block for understanding almost everything in the book to an o.k. sort of standard, i plan to read it through at least twice more to make sure i really understand everything to the level that i want to. (I'm doing a MSc in Mathematics now, but plan to Do a 2nd MSc in Theoretical Physics later on, as that is where my true interests and ambitions lie) The explanations of the physics are possibly even better than those of the mathematics, although it is virtually impossible to really understand quantum mechanics without many years of proper study, this book really gives a nice intro to the wierd and wonderful world of the quantum.
Not a book for the "popular science" market February 21, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm an extremely keen reader and viewer of what is now commonly called Popular Science. I have a great amateur interest and knowledge of cosmology, quantum physics and related physics. I am also a (qualified) and pretty darn good computer programmer in languages from BASIC to 68000 assembly language and have contributed to professional games releases and written 3D engines, amongst other things.
I haven't said this to show-off how smart I am by any means, merely to illustrate just what an Everest this book is to the casual reader, including myself.
If one were to pick this book up from the shelf and note the blurb on the back which says "It assumes no particular specialist knowledge on the part of the reader" and that "the early chapters give us the vital mathematical background", you might assume that it was accessible to pretty much everyone who had the capacity to read, learn and could add up.
Not so. This blurb is seriously misleading, requiring at least- in my view- an understanding of mathematics to college level, if not university level.
It is true that the early parts of the book are largely devoted to explaining the maths involved to getting deeper into the physics of the rest of the book, but from very simple beginnings they rapidly fall into a whole host of symbols and equations most people won't understand. Including myself.
We start off with mathematical proofs, which are nicely explained, interesting and fairly straight forward for the novice to get to grips with, but are then remarkably quickly plunged into the topic of hyperbolic geometry and the terrible, mystical symbols crop up without any explanation of what they mean.
It's been said that once can fill in one's gaps of knowledge on the maths involved here by Googling the terms and studying the results, and that the book then opens up quite well to the reader- I've even seen it suggested that one can do it a page-a-day. That may be true, but I find Googling symbols rather difficult and I also think that studying a page-a-day of a 1000+ page book might require a lot more commitment than the interested amateur would be prepared to give.
From what I can ascertain, this book is- in its scope and ambition- a bit of a stunner and pretty much a definitive guide to most of the current thinking in the world of physics. For that reason, I'd dearly love to be able to read it.
However, the assertions of "no specialist knowledge" is extremely misleading. I can't help feel that, if the author had spent a dozen or so more chapters at the beginning explaining the maths and symbols behind the maths and symbols in the next dozen or so chapters, the reader would not only be much more involved but much more educated and willing to tackle the rest of the book.
As it is, I've put the book aside rather quickly until I can educate myself in the mathematics involved to even begin to get beyond the first few chapters.
A bit of a missed opportunity, in my view and this is solely why I have given it such a low star-rating- I have no doubt the book is excellent on its topic; probably worthy of a five-star; but to mislead the buyer by its blurb is rather unforgiveable. Probably the fault of the publisher rather than the author, admittedly, but the author could have offered more by way of a foundation class in the maths needed.
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