The book also explains ideas of how time stops near black holes, why objects can’t travel faster than the speed of light, how black holes aren’t so black after all and also the science-fiction ideas of wormholes and time travel. This idea of gravity was adopted to explain the orbit of mercury which deviated from Newton’s laws. Now if you put a few marbles on the mattress they move towards the ball, or rather gravitate towards it. Place a heavy ball on the mat so that map dips around it. For example, he describes the notion of gravity and relativity in the following way: Imagine a thin mattress which is held outstretched. He explains a rather mathematical and theoretical idea with various illustrations and relatable examples. Albert Einstein and the theory of general relativity was the highlight of the book. Hawking has a quirky sense of humour and along with ideas being developed also shares various life events of scientists.

The book was addictive despite being a slightly difficult read as, once you understand an idea, you want to understand how it relates to other topics of the book. The book uses minimal technical jargon and mathematical knowledge to explain how the notions of gravity, relativity, black holes have developed over the twentieth century.

A Brief History of Time is an introduction to cosmology aimed at the layman and addresses fundamental questions such as “How did the world come to be?” and “Will it come to an end?”.

A brief history of time pages