An Introduction to Modern Cosmology

By Andrew R. Liddle

Book Overview

This new textbook provides a readable and accessible introduction to the subject for those students taking a first course in cosmology. An Introduction to Modern Cosmology introduces models of the expanding universe and explores all the successes of the hot big bang, including the cosmic microwave background and nucleosynthesis. A brief discussion of the inflationary cosmology is also included. No prior knowledge of astronomy is assumed and the book's general approach tends to avoid relativity, deriving the crucial results using newtonian theory. This allows a discussion of all the evidence in favour of the hot big bang in a treatment which is based in physics rather than mathematics.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471987581
• ISBN13: 9780471987581
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.7" x 0.3" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

wonderful book!

As a textbook author in a totally unrelated field (Pharmacokinetics), I was awestruck at how well this book was able to teach me a brand new subject in which I had developed an interest. It is rare for an author to be simultaneously as knowledgeable and as transparent as Dr. Liddle. With great lucidity, this book starts from scratch and uses a step-by-step approach to construct, in the end, an imposing edifice of cosmological knowledge. The book is eminently suitable for self teaching. I would characterize this book as the ideal introductory text in the field. It is also a bargain!

An Introduction to Modern Cosmology by Andrew Liddle, Second Edition

An excellent book for the for the beginner in Cosmology and requires only first year calculus to understand the first section of the book which derives all the formulas using Newton's Laws. The last third of the book uses General Relativity to derive the equations and goes deeper into the math and physics. The problems are interesting and help with the understanding of the subject. All the answer to the problems are given which is helpful.

Terrific introduction to cosmology

That is a very good introduction book to cosmology at an undergraduate level. Although there are not many complicated equations, the physics ideas are very clear. It covers a lot of materials with easy-to-understand languages. The big bang model is the main part, with concise introduction to dark matter/energy, neuclosynthesis, cosmic microwave background, inflation etc. After reading this book, you will have a general idea about most of the concepts in cosmology and about what is going on in modern cosmology. Each chapter is accompanied by some problems, which are good exercise to understand the context. But I think it is a little outdated now, so maybe you should buy the 2nd edition.

An excellent introduction

I came across this book because it was required reading for my cosmology course. The book gives a Newtonian (it only briefly mentions the much more complicated General Relativity equations) overview of the current theories about the universe: its mass, its age, its shape and its ultimate destiny. The text is very readable, equations are explained properly and the diagrams are useful. The reader is left with a good impression of why the currently proposed cosmological models are sensible.The book puts the case for the hot big bang model, which is by far the most popular cosmological model at this time. There is a chapter on the successes of this model: explanation of the cosmic background radiation, universal expansion, and the relative abundance of elements in the early universe. There follows a chapter on the major problems of this model: how come the background radiation looks the same (to within one part in a hundred thousand) everywhere, even when light hasn't had time to travel between all these regions? How did the universe become structured (into things such as stars) when physics predicts that matter should be homogeneously spread? And why does the universe (seemingly) possess the exact right density (to almost infinitessimal precision) to stay flat, as we see it today? Inflation theory offers some help, but at the same time asks a bigger question: which of the many inflation theories (if any) is right? Liddle doesn't go into much detail on this point, but you get a good introduction into what inflation is and why such an odd theory would be proposed.I'm making it sound as if the big bang model has more problems than it solves, which I don't think it does (heck, it's the best theory we've got). But the problems are more interesting!On which subject, there are problems (solvable ones!) at the end of each chapter, with brief solutions at the end of the book.

Its cool

Dr Liddle was my academic tutor at Imperial College, London.I have every trust that his books is as clear as his tutorials.