On the Trail of the Mystery of Time – New Book on Time for Non-Physicists

From the Beginning of Time 13.8 Billion Years Ago to Now

To solve this, Troels Harmark takes us on a journey that spans from the natural philosophers of antiquity to the forefront of contemporary research with relativity theory, quantum physics, black holes, and the discovery of the origin of time with the universe 13.8 billion years ago.

It deals with the relativity of time, how time moves faster at the top of a skyscraper than at ground level, and how time can be so affected that it actually stops at the edge of a black hole.

The Joy of doing outreach

Troels himself talks about his motivations for starting work on the book: "It was a friend who encouraged me to write a book. Probably after the many long explanations about my research that he was subjected to, and it created a contact with the publisher Gyldendal, who turned out to be interested.

Additionally, I have often found it to be rather amazing when I felt that I reached the audience at various lectures, and they experienced revelatory moments about how, for example, the theory of relativity works.

The idea for the topic of time came from the desire to write about a slightly more philosophical and deeper angle on what science says about the world, what science really is, and how incredibly wild it is that we have found some natural laws that can describe the world.

The topic of time calls for a deeper understanding, as it is not possible to observe "time itself"; you can only observe time indirectly through its impact on the world. It also deals with deep topics such as natural laws, determinism, and the existence of the universe and ourselves.

I believe that many people, even if they may never have studied physics after elementary school or high school, have a deep interest in understanding the world on a more fundamental level, and I hope they will benefit from reading my book."