|  | Directors: Joseph McMaster, Julia Cort
Actors: Michael Duff, Brian Greene, Michael B. Green, Walter Lewin, Joseph Lykken
Studio: WGBH Boston
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $10.13
as of 3/21/2010 23:18 CDT details
You Save: $9.82 (49%)
New (25) Used (17) from $8.09
Seller: moviemars
Rating:  122 reviews
Sales Rank: 4398
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 180 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: D36779D
ISBN: 1593750064
UPC: 783421367791
EAN: 9781593750060
ASIN: B0000ZG0TA
Theatrical Release Date: October 28, 2003
Release Date: January 20, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 26-30 of 122
 Excellent presentation May 13, 2007
Michael D. Whitehouse (Ashland, Oregon)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The information is well presented in a format that enhances the learning of a complex subject.
great teaching tool May 12, 2007
Corinne (California)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I used this with my 8th grade astronomy class to teach the kids about what is going on right now in the world of astrophysics and cosmology. There are also a lot of educational tools. It presented String Theory in a way that most of my 8th graders (honors students) could understand. The only down side is that written only by people who are in favor of String Theory so the counter argument is underrepresented- but as a teacher you can balance that out by doing some extra research. Overall, it's a great teaching tool.
 Good for some audiences, but can't be compared to the book. May 5, 2007
Patrick D. Goonan (Pleasanton, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an entertaining DVD that introduces the concept of string theory. It is NOT a replacement for the book which is quite detailed and goes in-depth. What what loses in detail, one gains in accessibility. If you are a very serious science person, you will likely be disappointed. If you are a layperson who just wants to get a taste of this area with some good commentary, you will most likely appreciate it.
The Superstars of Physics comment on the Theory of Everything April 10, 2007
OverTheMoon (overthemoonreview@hotmail.com)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Brian Greene, Prof of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia and PBS NOVA have come together to present the best possible case for the theory of everything using Greene's bestselling "The Elegant Universe" as a bases for the presentation.
The Elegant Universe (TEU) the miniseries by PBS ran on the 28th October 2003 in three parts on the science series NOVA. This DVD contains all three one hour episodes. The series starts with classical physics and then moves on to the big controversies in unifying two major disciplines in science, relativity and quantum mechanics. It does this by combining Brian Greene in lecture form with cutting edge computer graphics. The outcome makes this an essential talk on understanding modern thinking for an explanation of the cosmos.
Hour 1: Einstein's Dream
Hour 2: String's The Thing
Hour 3: Welcome to the 11th Dimension
TEU covers the biggest conflicts in physics. String theory becomes a solution. It explains logic of probability in the world and how the standard model (TSM) has come to be (unifying electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force) but without incorporating gravity. Newton is covered with his mechanical physics and Einstein's relativity is easily absorbed.
Quantum topics are the trickiest to understand but TEU the miniseries does a good job of explaining Quantum theory, its mechanisms and how things breakdown when we go further into the quantum world. This breakdown is resolved in the unification of Einstein's theory of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics through string theory.
The remainder of the miniseries is about how string theory works and what it predicts and where we are in scientifically proving it today (they can't but they have the core math work done). Much like Hawking's approach to educating people about physics, Greene explains it all in layman's terms.
While this is nowhere near as good as Greene's book of the same name it does help to visualize what he is saying and so as a companion is well worth getting but it has greater values other than just as a compliment to his work.
The best thing this miniseries has going for it is the list of superstars in physics who comment on the TOE. These big names include Michael Duff, Brian Green, Michael B. Green, Walter Lewin, Joseph Lykken, Amanda Peet, John Schwarz, Maria Spiropulu, Leonard Susskind, Cumrun Vafa, Gabriele Veneziano, Steven Weinberg and the highly acclaimed Edward Witten who is the real reason for watching this.
The bottom line is that string theory is still highly theoretical and it is even questionable if there are any experiments that exist to show to it but the maths is there for it and the search for the supersymmetry circumstantial proof is underway at CERN. Also if the fact that scientists haven't provided scientific proof of strings isn't bad enough, ST produced not just one TOE but five different ones! It is obvious that the existence of five realities poses the big questions of which of the five is our universe and where are the other four? This problem was eventually resolved by Witten's M-Theory which discovered that the 5 realities were just a reflection of 1 and established the 11 dimensional superstring model that has the ability to become one big large membrane (as big as the universe) and for these various branes to float around as alternative dimensions. However none of this has been verified.
Greene's detractors claim that ST is pseudoscience... and they have a point but what these people don't tell you is that ST is extremely hard to disprove.
How ST produced a TOE is not mystery. It is not a bunk pseudoscience. A mathematician can reproduce and verify the results of ST without any anomalies and makes some predictions which fit quite well with what we know today (especially with particle spins). Strings are mathematically explained from an equation called the "Euler-beta function". Michael Greene and John Schwarz resolved gravity with the quantum mathematically using strings in 1984 after twelve years of work. Strings also explained why known particles have their known masses. It is extremely difficult to ignore the data yet the idea of not being able to observe it is problematic.
The TOE as per ST is solved. Even if we never detect strings somehow, we still have the question of 11 dimensions and how they work. The software is there but it's a highly detailed and complicated one. It runs the hardware but there are all these extra fuctions and buttons that scientists can't explain yet. Quite simply put, ST is a whole lot more than what we need to explain everything! Scientists just don't like that, and right fully so.
For the record Hawking has already stated that this is the course that his work has taken after admitting that information cannot be destroyed [see laws of thermodynamics] nor is it destroyed by a black hole in response to the Hawking Paradox.
Overall TEU suggests one huge powerful thing for everybody and one detrimental thing for modern science. The power of ST is unquestionable. It can do anything and is absolutely logical. ST just needed to unify the principles of physics and it has done its job. The detrimental part is that like the death of classical physics with Einstein, a lot of scientists may be gambling instead of doing things scientifically. If you can't prove it scientifically then it isn't science. Yet again, imagination and experimentation is what science is all about. It is not that we have given ST too much imagination... we probably haven't given it enough as M-theory shows! However when you find out that ploughing nearly all the brain power of new physics grads into it (1 in 10 students choose ST), this is either a very positive thing for ST or a harmful thing for science if it turns out ST was wrong. Still who wants to sit on their laurels with ST waving?
ST feels right... in fact, very right. Baring this in mind it was Carl Sagan who when asked about gut feelings said "I think with my brain not my stomach". If ST could replace the gut instinct drive with verifiable experiments then we would know for certain that ST is definitely how the universe works.
Until you see the headlines "Supersymmetry Found", taste the very real possibility of knowing everything by watch Nova's The Elegant Universe presented by Brian Greene.
(If you like this I highly recommend Carl Sagan's Cosmos on DVD and for a deeper understanding of physics try finding the 52 parts of The Mechanical Universe series)
Absolutely incredible! March 18, 2007
Laurie
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Talk about making the unimaginable managable! I read the book but the movie really brought the concepts to light. I absolutely loved it.
Showing reviews 26-30 of 122
|
|
|
