What a poorly written book. Once he got to the part about the

That book is as close to pure shit as you can get. The experiment is very easy to understand.

Say you have to sailboats with both sails and engines, and there is a wind in a certain direction.
Now, you orient one sailboat to sail at about 45º from the other, both racing to reach the same distance from their starts. Because of the sails catching the wind, one will inevitably reach the finish line earlier than the other, since they sailed in 2 different directions with respect to the wind.
If there was no wind, then they would reach the finish line at the same time.

Now in the late 80s, scientists thought that there was a medium called aether, just like an atmosphere is the medium where wind exists. This was the medium where light waves were supposed to be carried.
Because the earth is moving very fast, that movement should create a wind in the aether. Therefore, if you replicate the sailboat experiment with two beams of light, or rather with one beam that is split and then recombined, if there was wind then one beam would reach the detector earlier.

Because both beams reached the detector at the same time, they proved there was no aether (because there was no wind) and that light could travel in a vacuum.

But seriously don't read that piece of shit book.

>>8626446
>80s
1880's*

>>8626370

Michelson Morley was a dud, wrong premises, wrong apparatus, wrong conclusion.

As a whole hawking-show, it's no better then medieval divinator-monsters :

Asking a wheelchair-bound freak to explain profound meaning of universe, life and all.

>>8626370
His little mind is full of complication: so are his senseless, wild science ideas so obviously he'll have problems communicating plainly.

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>>8626370
Tho i like Brief History... This book was more usefull for me. Greene explaines allot clearer but also with allot of excitement.

>>8626463
>>8626492
>>>/x/

>>8626540

C'mon, smart one, don't shy out, enlighten us - the simple plebs.

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>>8626370

You're not supposed to read it. Just buy it and put it on your bookshelf to look intelligent n well read.

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>>8626370
>I'm not a science denier, I think science is the closest thing to honesty and objectivity we have in the world, and that it's values can derive higher human values in general

Jesus Christ, stop being so cringy and autistic.

>I just wish I had a better avenue of exploring these sorts of things

Read introductory textbooks, check the /sci/ wikia. Or at the very least read the manga guide to... series.

>>8626708
>Jesus Christ
Didn't exist
>stop being so cringy
Because there is no consistent definition of what cringy means, I cannot logically follow this command even if I wanted to.
>and autistic.
The common useage of the word autistic to mean anyone behaving in an awkward way, is a bigoted affront to people who have that condition. I would say, inversely, that you should stop being so judgmental, to thinks you subjectively feel are "cringy".

That manga series looks sick. I wanna check out the physics one.

>>8626778
*tips faedora*
m'lady

>>8626708
how are you supposed to learn shit if you need to keep jacking off to the cartoons?

>>8626370
I read "The Universe in a nutshell" and I gotta say that I don't like his writing style. One thing I remember is that he explained the spin of a particle as the number of rotations you have to do to get back your original particle. (e.g. spin 1/2 - 2 rotations) While that is a property of spin, it explains fuck all about what a spin is.

>>8627134

>it explains fuck all about what a spin is

He would explain, if he could. Writing a book is fancier, and brings some $

>>8626370
>Read that popsci bullshit

>>8626778
>Didn't exist

Are you like 12? >>>/reddit/

>>8626370
Better off reading Roger Penrose anons.
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679776311/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_HmbIybS2YDECG