The Janus Point
A New Theory of Time
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The Janus Point
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Narrated by:
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James Langton
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By:
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Julian Barbour
About this listen
In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, one physicist makes the radical argument that the growth of order drives the passage of time - and shapes the destiny of the universe.
Time is among the universe's greatest mysteries. Why, when most laws of physics allow for it to flow forward and backward, does it only go forward? Physicists have long appealed to the second law of thermodynamics, held to predict the increase of disorder in the universe, to explain this. In The Janus Point, physicist Julian Barbour argues that the second law has been misapplied and that the growth of order determines how we experience time. In his view, the big bang becomes the "Janus point," a moment of minimal order from which time could flow, and order increase, in two directions. The Janus Point has remarkable implications: while most physicists predict that the universe will become mired in disorder, Barbour sees the possibility that order - the stuff of life - can grow without bound.
A major work of physics, The Janus Point will transform our understanding of the nature of existence.
©2020 by Julian Barbour. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"The origin of the arrow of time is arguably the most important conceptual problem in cosmology, and the prospect that it can be solved in a universe where time flows 'backward' in the far past is as exciting as it is provocative. In this engaging book, Julian Barbour conveys this excitement admirably, complete with just a bit more detail than professional physicists usually share with the public." --Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here
"Julian Barbour's infectious enthusiasm for the big ideas in physics is addictive. He has a complete mastery of the history of ideas yet a remarkable lightness and clarity in explaining what are profound concepts. The Janus Point is controversial and gripping, an extraordinary introduction to his view of the universe." --Pedro G. Ferreira, author of The Perfect Theory
"Julian Barbour has no peer when it comes to explaining scientific ideas in a way that is accessible without being simplistic. For good measure he has a talent for using quotes from Shakespeare and other literary sources in a manner that actually helps to elucidate key points. In The Janus Point he tackles subject matter that is notoriously challenging even to scientists, and explains it in a way that gave me new insights and understanding even though I studied these topics in a classroom a long time ago. This is a fitting sequel to his earlier work and helps to pull together several big ideas that some of us have been watching with fascination for decades." --Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash
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Story4 out of 5 stars 485
How much can we know about the world? In this audiobook physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence, the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and the limits of knowledge. In so doing he reaches a provocative conclusion: Science, like religion, is fundamentally limited as a tool for understanding the world. As science and its philosophical interpretations advance, we face the unsettling recognition of how much we don't know.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Island of knowledge
- By Joshua Kring on 07-26-15
By: Marcelo Gleiser
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Warped Passages
- Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
- By: Lisa Randall
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 121
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
Warped Passages is an altogether exhilarating journey that tracks the arc of discovery from early 20th-century physics to the razor's edge of modern scientific theory. One of the world's leading theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall provides astonishing scientific possibilities that, until recently, were restricted to the realm of science fiction. Unraveling the twisted threads of the most current debates on relativity, quantum mechanics, and gravity, she explores some of the most fundamental questions posed by Nature.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Physics textbook without the math
- By Victor on 05-13-18
By: Lisa Randall
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The Trouble with Physics
- The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
- By: Lee Smolin
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 534
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 358
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Story4 out of 5 stars 361
In this illuminating book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that fundamental physics - the search for the laws of nature - is losing its way. Ambitious ideas about extra dimensions, exotic particles, multiple universes, and strings have captured the publics imagination -- and the imagination of experts.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Strings snipped
- By J B Tipton on 06-06-10
By: Lee Smolin
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Relativity
- The Special and the General Theory
- By: Albert Einstein
- Narrated by: Julian Lopez-Morillas
- Length: 2 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 182
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 145
Albert Einstein described Relativity as a "popular explosion" of his famous theory. Written in 1916, it introduced the lay audience to the remarkable perspective which had overturned theoretical physics. Einstein's genius was to express this perspective in understandable terms.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Can't stand listening to the reader.
- By Xcoder on 04-20-11
By: Albert Einstein
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Our Mathematical Universe
- My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: Max Tegmark
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,506
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,190
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,181
Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy, and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow!
- By Michael on 02-02-14
By: Max Tegmark
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To Explain the World
- The Discovery of Modern Science
- By: Steven Weinberg
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 261
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Story4 out of 5 stars 218
In this rich, irreverent, and compelling history, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg takes us across centuries, from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato's Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world--they did not understand what there is to understand or how to understand it.
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4 out of 5 stars
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How the world created a Newton
- By Gary on 03-02-15
By: Steven Weinberg
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The Logical Leap
- Induction in Physics
- By: David Harriman
- Narrated by: Erik Singer
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 163
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
Beginning with a detailed discussion of the role of mathematics and experimentation in validating generalizations in physics-looking closely at the reasoning of scientists such as Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Lavoisier, and Maxwell-Harriman skillfully argues that the inductive method used in philosophy is in principle indistinguishable from the method used in physics.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Quite refreshing
- By Eric on 10-12-10
By: David Harriman
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Knocking on Heaven's Door
- How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World
- By: Lisa Randall
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 152
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Story4 out of 5 stars 156
The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven's Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance of science. There could be no better guide than Lisa Randall.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Too Political
- By Allan on 12-14-11
By: Lisa Randall
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Calculating the Cosmos
- How Mathematics Unveils the Universe
- By: Ian Stewart
- Narrated by: Dana Hickox
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
In Calculating the Cosmos, Ian Stewart presents an exhilarating guide to the cosmos, from our solar system to the entire universe. He describes the architecture of space and time, dark matter and dark energy, how galaxies form, why stars implode, how everything began, and how it's all going to end. He considers parallel universes, the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life, what forms extraterrestrial life might take, and the likelihood of life on Earth being snuffed out by an asteroid.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Crank alert: rejects modern cosmology
- By James Weisner on 03-20-17
By: Ian Stewart
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Infinite Powers
- How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 688
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 564
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 559
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not written to be read aloud
- By A Reader in Maine on 02-21-20
By: Steven Strogatz
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Six Not-So-Easy Pieces
- Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time
- By: Richard P. Feynman
- Narrated by: Richard P. Feynman
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 229
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
No 20th-century American scientist is better known to a wider spectrum of people than Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988), physicist, teacher, author, and cultural icon. His autobiographies and biographies have been read and enjoyed by millions of readers around the world, while his wit and eccentricities have made him the subject of TV specials and even a theatrical film.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Interesting, but ...
- By Doug on 01-01-06
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Spooky Action at a Distance
- The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time-and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
- By: George Musser
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 656
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 577
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Story4 out of 5 stars 575
What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally stop to ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time. The phenomenon - the ability of one particle to affect another instantly across the vastness of space - appears to be almost magical.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Rambling but Asks Good Questions
- By Michael on 12-19-15
By: George Musser
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Quantum Enigma
- Physics Encounters Consciousness
- By: Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 265
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 227
In trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics, the most successful theory in science and the basis of one-third of our economy. They found, to their embarrassment, that with their theory, physics encounters consciousness. Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all this in nontechnical terms with help from some fanciful stories and anecdotes about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, emphasizing what is and what is not speculation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow. Very Informative and mind boggling.
- By Kevin Harper, Realtor on 08-11-17
By: Bruce Rosenblum, and others
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The Quantum Story
- A History in 40 Moments
- By: Jim Baggott
- Narrated by: Mike Pollock
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 235
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 174
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Story4 out of 5 stars 174
Utterly beautiful. Profoundly disconcerting. Quantum theory is quite simply the most successful account of the physical universe ever devised. Its concepts underpin much of the 21st-century technology that we now take for granted. But at the same time it has completely undermined our ability to make sense of the world at its most fundamental level.
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1 out of 5 stars
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who's the target reader?
- By Hannah on 09-17-11
By: Jim Baggott
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The Grand Biocentric Design
- How Life Creates Reality
- By: Robert Lanza, Matej Pavšič
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 289
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 243
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 239
What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from - the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers - until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design, Robert Lanza, one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Should be in the fiction section.
- By Frank on 12-29-20
By: Robert Lanza, and others
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Paradox
- The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics
- By: Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
Throughout history, scientists have come up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. These we call paradoxes. The paradoxes Al-Khalili offers are drawn chiefly from physics and astronomy and represent those that have stumped some of the finest minds. With elegant explanations that bring the listener inside the mind of those who've developed them, Al-Khalili helps us to see that, in fact, paradoxes can be solved if seen from the right angle.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Almost Useless
- By Michael on 06-19-19
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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The Universe in the Rearview Mirror
- How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality
- By: Dave Goldberg
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
A physicist speeds across space, time, and everything in between showing that our elegant universe from the Higgs boson to antimatter to the most massive group of galaxies is shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven all our recent discoveries about the universe and all the ones to come. Why is the sky dark at night? Is it possible to build a shrink-ray gun? If there is antimatter, can there be antipeople? Why are past, present, and future our only options? Are time and space like a butterfly's wings? No one but Dave Goldberg, the coolest nerd physicist on the planet, could give a hyper-drive tour of the universe like this one.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good, but for whom?
- By Michael on 08-31-13
By: Dave Goldberg
What listeners say about The Janus Point
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Trevor
- 08-03-23
It’s a book on physics
Expect science and math. Both of which are wonderfully written and presented to the amateur and explained simply after.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- M. R. Mosall
- 07-19-21
Mostly math and difficult to follow.
Seems like the author is "showing off" his knowledge of scientific jargon. Many of his explanations were beyond my comprehension in spite of a Masters plus in science education. Would not recommend for the average reader.
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4 people found this helpful