A Degree in a Book: Cosmology: Everything You Need to Know to Master the Subject - in One Book!

My husband (chemist) and I (dietitian) are reading this together. If not for his penchant for astronomy and physics and ability to explain some of the concepts, this book would be wasted on me. With him to translate, I'm able to get something out of it and our discussionsare interesting. Preliminary chapters which weren't technical, contained some errors (example was a photo of a prehistoric African rock showing hashmarks indicating 'Neanderthal' record-keeping though Neanderthals were never in Africa). Also the pace seems uneven. Some concepts are merely stated, not explained at all. Others go into excruciating detail including into the development of mathematical variables of formulas that were argued about in the early 20th century. Overall, there is alot of information here, and with my trusty interpreter I am able to enjoy this learning experience. Without a prior foundation in the physical sciences, however, I believe this book would be a hard one to get a 'complete course' overview from. Perhaps they should list course prerequisites.

Sure, there are many illustrations, but mostly useless artist renderings or diagrams without much explanation. The theories are more or less simply enumerated, without much attempt at analogical explanation.

This book is a gift for my teen child who has interest in this area. I would like to thank Sten Odenwald for presenting this subject in such a spectacular way by simplifying the subject and explaining this vast subject in such fantastic way. I would recommend this book to everyone who has interest on this subject.