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''Hiding in the Mirror'' is a popular science book by the theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss. The text was initially published on October 20, 2005 by
Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...
. This is his seventh non-fiction book.


Synopsis

The work draws on the works of scientists, mathematicians, artists, and writers to consider the cultural and scientific aspects of extra dimensions. The book explores popular theories about such topics as
black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...
s, life in other
dimension In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a Space (mathematics), mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any Point (geometry), point within it. Thus, a Line (geometry), lin ...
s, and
string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interac ...
.


Review

A reviewer of ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' mentioned "Physicist Krauss offers an erudite and well-crafted overview of the role multiple dimensions have played in the history of physics. This isn't an easy book, even with a writer as talented as Krauss (whom some will recognize as the author of ''
The Physics of Star Trek ''The Physics of Star Trek'' is a 1995 non-fiction book by the theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss. It is the third book by Krauss, who later wrote a follow-up titled '' Beyond Star Trek'' in 1997. Overview Krauss discusses the physics in ...
'' and '' Beyond Star Trek'') serving as one's Virgil. Long on science and short on its connections with culture, the book is essentially an introduction to the physics and mathematics of extra dimensions with a few more or less disconnected chapters that touch on how these ideas show up in art and popular culture; there's more on brane-world and the
ekpyrotic universe The ekpyrotic universe () is a physical cosmology, cosmological model of the early universe that explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. The model has also been incorporated in the cyclic universe theory (or ekpyrotic cycl ...
than on Plato's cave, whose inhabitants could not perceive reality in all its dimensions, or
Buckaroo Banzai ''The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension'', often shortened to ''Buckaroo Banzai'', is a 1984 American science fiction film produced and directed by W. D. Richter and written by Earl Mac Rauch. It stars Peter Weller in the ...
."


See also

*
Euclidean space Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, that is, in Euclid's Elements, Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics ther ...
*
Fourth dimension in art New possibilities opened up by the concept of four-dimensional space (and difficulties involved in trying to visualize it) helped inspire many modern artists in the first half of the twentieth century. Early Cubists, Surrealists, Futurists, and ...
*
Four-dimensionalism In philosophy, four-dimensionalism (also known as the doctrine of temporal parts) is the ontological position that an object's persistence through time is like its extension through space. Thus, an object that exists in time has temporal parts i ...
* Fifth dimension *
Sixth dimension Six-dimensional space is any space that has six dimensions, six degrees of freedom, and that needs six pieces of data, or coordinates, to specify a location in this space. There are an infinite number of these, but those of most interest are simpl ...


Similar books

*''
Flatland ''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions'' is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Seeley & Co. of London. Written pseudonymously by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dime ...
'', a book by
Edwin A. Abbott Edwin Abbott Abbott (20 December 1838 – 12 October 1926) was an English schoolmaster, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella ''Flatland'' (1884). Biography Edwin Abbott Abbott was the eldest son of ...
about two- and
three-dimensional space Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position (geometry), position of an element (i.e., Point (m ...
s, to understand the concept of four dimensions *''
Sphereland ''Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe'' is a 1965 translation of , a 1957 novel by Dionys Burger, and is a sequel to ''Flatland'', a novel by "A Square" (a pen name of Edwin Abbott Abbott). The novel expands upon ...
'', an unofficial sequel to ''Flatland'' *'' The Fourth Dimension'' by
Rudy Rucker Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...
*'' Warped Passages'', a book by
Lisa Randall Lisa Randall (born June 18, 1962) is an American theoretical physicist working in particle physics and cosmology. She is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science on the physics faculty of Harvard University. Her research includes the funda ...


References


Further reading

* * *


External links

*{{Official website, http://krauss.faculty.asu.edu/books/hiding-in-the-mirror/ Popular science books 2005 non-fiction books Books by Lawrence M. Krauss