What if time didn’t exist?

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• Carlo Rovelli

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TIM press published a book What if time didn't exist? by Carlo Rovelli, a scientists and a passionate advocate for an extraordinary phenomenon, a reconciliation between the two main theories in physics: general relativity and quantum physics.

Ten years before he would reveal the theory of general relativity, Einstein realized that space and time are not separate entities, but two aspects of one and the same entity. This discovery bears the name "Special Theory of Relativity". Two events (for example, the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America and death of John Lennon), we understand as arranged in time, more specifically, that one takes place before and the other after. Usually we think that time is something comprehensive and that's why it makes sense to ask what exactly is going on elsewhere in the universe at the moment. But this is not so.

When two events occur in two places and are mutually sufficiently distant, generally it does not make sense to say which of them is happening first. It also makes no sense to ask what exactly is going on at the moment, for example, in the Andromeda galaxy. The reason is that time does not flow everywhere in the same way. We have our own time, a galaxy Andromeda its own, and the two times, generally speaking, can not be linked.

Carlo Rovelli takes us on a personal investigative journey and shares his own thoughts on the nature of space and time. The general theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, quantum gravity, the origin of the universe and the fate of black holes are the main problems of this candid testimony about authors life in the heart of the science where he proposes to interpret mechanics as a theory of the relations between variables, rather than the theory of the evolution of variables in time. In this translation of the second, updated French edition, Rovelli brings some new ideas, such as Planck constant and discussion about the reality of time.

What this book offers is a "new" physics of the twentieth century: quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity. It is filled with fascinating ideas, extraordinary conceptual revolutions that transform our vision of the world and shake the old ideas, including those that were considered most solid. Rovelli reveals that the world is not as we see it and teaches us to see things from a different perspective.

Carlo Rovelli (1956) is an Italian theoretical physicist and writer. He was educated at the universities in Italy, and after obtaining a doctorate he worked at the University of Rome and universities in the United States. He lives in France and works at the Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Luminy in Marseille. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers published in leading scientific journals and several books, most notably Quantum Gravity (2004), The first scientist. Anaximander and his legacy (2011), What if time didn’t exist? (2014) and Seven short lessons about physics (2015). The book What if time didn’t exist? is Rovelli’s first book published in Croatian language.

• ISBN: 978-953-8075-08-7
• Dimensions: 128x200 mm
• Number of pages: 156
• Cover: paperback
• Year of the edition: 2015
• Original title: Et si le temps n´existait pas?
• Original language: French
• Translation: Divina Marion