# Happy Birthday, Stephen Hawking (70 years)



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Stephen and Roger Penrose are my general relativity heroes. Stephen Hawking proved in the 70's that according to general relativity, the universe *must* have begun in a singular state (the Big Bang, 13 billion years ago). Also, in a pioneering work, he showed that black holes should emit radiation, thus putting the key stone in the remarkable (and mysterious) analogy between the laws of black hole mechanics and the ordinary laws of thermodynamics. Cheers for him.:tiphat::tiphat:


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Even though I studied this stuff at undergraduate level, I remember my dismay on opening Hawking and Ellis's _The large scale structure of space-time_ (Cambridge, 1973), in which they developed the ideas of initial and terminal singularities. The preface starts well, "The subject of this book is the structure of space-time on length scales from the radius of an elementary particle up to the radius of the universe", but I had given up by p11!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

The doctors said he wouldn't live much beyond twenty. Well, the doctors got it wrong in this case.

Happy birthday, Mr. Hawking!...


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

Stephen Hawking should be _Sir_ Stephen Hawking. In my opinion, he's the greatest living Brit. If he doesn't deserve a knighthood, nobody does.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^Maybe he's been offered a knighthood but refused to accept it. I think Ralph Vaughan Williams did that...


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

I don't think he's been offered it, but he might be ineligible because of the honours (including OBE) that he already has.

Anyway, I see he got the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009, and that's even better.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

An incandescently brilliant man, with a boneheaded way of looking for God.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Even though I studied this stuff at undergraduate level, I remember my dismay on opening Hawking and Ellis's _The large scale structure of space-time_ (Cambridge, 1973), in which they developed the ideas of initial and terminal singularities. The preface starts well, "The subject of this book is the structure of space-time on length scales from the radius of an elementary particle up to the radius of the universe", but I had given up by p11!


why? it starts with some basic differential geometry (maybe not at the beginner level, but in any case pretty standard). Hawking and Ellis and Wald ("General Relativity") are my bibles . But yes, Wald is more accessible and even fun to read, I find his style very easy to follow. Hawking and Ellis can be cryptic sometimes. The preface you cite, explains Penrose's "trapped surface idea" for the singularity theorems.

mmm, now that I remember (from my career thread), you have studied this topics in the 70's, so yes, in that time, this was very advanced stuff (I mean, Hawking and Ellis was one of the first books on general relativity that treated differential geometry at the "mathematician level"; thank God for Roger Penrose; as you know, we, physicists, can be very sloppy in the mathematical rigor sometimes; although I, personally, try to maintain the level). But now, 35 years later, these topics are quite standard for a theoretical physicist.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^Re the accessiblity of Mr. Hawking's writings - to the non-scientific community that is - there was a widely circulating joke here about his best-seller book. It went like everyone has a copy but nobody has read beyond the first page. I have not tried to read his books, it's not my area. But I have come into contact with his theories briefly through a secondary source, but not a "hard core" scientific one. Bill Bryson's _A Brief History of Nearly Everything_...


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

I have succeeded in reading and enjoying his Brief History of Time. It is not the easiest read but it is rewarding. I had a very good friend who died of ALS. I sat with him in his hospital room when he could only respond by blinking his eyes. It was so tragic tosee a once vital man in this condition. I wish Dr. Hawking a happy birthday. I respect him. admire his courage and wish him well.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

GoneBaroque said:


> I have succeeded in reading and enjoying his Brief History of Time. It is not the easiest read but it is rewarding. I had a very good friend who died of ALS. I sat with him in his hospital room when he could only respond by blinking his eyes. It was so tragic tosee a once vital man in this condition. I wish Dr. Hawking a happy birthday. I respect him. admire his courage and wish him well.


man, that's so sad. Hawking in some sense is a lucky guy, he could have died 40 years ago.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I had a good friend in particle physics who later became the head of the Physics Department at Michigan. We both read Hawking's A Brief History of Time. He told me that he did not understand it. I told him that I basically did, but of course, I really meant that I only understood the general ideas. We are both experimentalists rather than theorists.

I've always thought that it was a bit unfair that I can read and generally understand papers in the vast majority of journals outside my field (physics), but I cannot understand the vast majority of theoretical papers in my field. It's a cruel world.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

mmsbls said:


> I had a good friend in particle physics who later became the head of the Physics Department at Michigan. We both read Hawking's A Brief History of Time. He told me that he did not understand it. I told him that I basically did, but of course, I really meant that I only understood the general ideas. We are both experimentalists rather than theorists.
> 
> I've always thought that it was a bit unfair that I can read and generally understand papers in the vast majority of journals outside my field (physics), but I cannot understand the vast majority of theoretical papers in my field. It's a cruel world.


theoretical physics is an awkward place today. The field is becoming more and more technical.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

> Happy Birthday, Stephen Hawking (70 years)


He, himself, is a miracles of the universe, I think.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

aleazk said:


> why? it starts with some basic differential geometry (maybe not at the beginner level, but in any case pretty standard). ...


It was a remark made for effect, I am afraid. Serves me right.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I'm glad to report that Mr. Hawking is definitely human, he knows how to have a good time, according to THIS report. Good on ya Steve!!!...


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Sid James said:


> I'm glad to report that Mr. Hawking is definitely human, he knows how to have a good time, according to THIS report. Good on ya Steve!!!...


I remember when I was in High School doing what was then 4-unit mathematics for the NSW HSC equivalent exams, my maths teacher then was telling us about Professor Hawking. Most of us in the class if not all, were pretty much just listening in amazement with regards to Stephen Hawking's personal endeavours reharding health matters let alone in theoretical physics. We were all about 17 or 18 then. I think young people these days certainly can have much to learn from quiet achievers.


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> I remember when I was in High School doing what was then 4-unit mathematics for the NSW HSC equivalent exams, my maths teacher then was telling us about Professor Hawking. Most of us in the class if not all, were pretty much just listening in amazement with regards to Stephen Hawking's personal endeavours reharding health matters let alone in theoretical physics. We were all about 17 or 18 then. I think young people these days certainly can have much to learn from quiet achievers.


I think maybe they do. Yesterday my brother told me an anecdote he heard about Stephen Hawking. Hawking was being taken in his special wheelchair from Charing Cross Hospital (in London) by a nurse, when they ran into a gang of inebriated teenagers. The nurse was terrified that the two of them were going to be subjected to a senseless attack of some sort, which could easily prove fatal for Hawking.

But instead, one of the kids said, "Holy F***! That's Stephen Hawking! He's a LEGEND!" And they got out their camera phones and took turns taking pictures of each other standing next to him.


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