A Brief History of Time mainly introduces what cosmology is and the latest development of cosmology. Because it is aimed at non-professional readers, in order not to scare them, only one mathematical formula is put throughout, which is the famous Einstein mass-energy equation: E = MC 2.
The scientific progress of the last century is unparalleled.
A Brief History of Time expounds some of the oldest problems in the most popular language, such as:
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What is the universe like?
The answer to this question is not given in the book, because science cannot guarantee that all questions have answers. Although we can't find a set of theories to explain the whole universe, we can divide the problem into many small pieces and invent many theories, each of which explains a limited scope and ignores other influences.
This method has achieved great success, such as Newton's law of universal gravitation. As long as the mass of stars is known, their orbits can be accurately calculated, but whether there are intelligent creatures on the structure of stars can be completely ignored.
Because of the success of this method, our understanding of the universe we live in has made a big step forward than that of the ancients.