SSC · Police
Who is the author of 'A Brief History of Time'?
Answer (Detailed Solution Below)View answer ▾Hide ▴
Answer: Option D — Stephen Hawking
Detailed Solution
"A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes" is a popular science book by the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, published in 1988.
About the book:
It explains complex ideas of cosmology for general readers, including the Big Bang, black holes, the nature of time, space-time, the expanding universe, light cones, and the search for a "theory of everything" that would unite general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Hawking's publisher told him that every equation would halve the number of readers, so he included only one equation: Einstein's E = mc².
It remained on the London "Sunday Times" best-seller list for a record 237 weeks and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide.
A shorter version, "A Briefer History of Time" (2005), was written with Leonard Mlodinow.
About Stephen Hawking (1942-2018):
He was born in Oxford, England, on 8 January 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo.
At the age of 21, he was diagnosed with a form of motor neurone disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS) and was given only a few years to live. He lived for more than 50 more years, using a wheelchair and a computer voice synthesiser to communicate.
He held the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge University (1979-2009), a post once held by Isaac Newton.
He predicted that black holes should emit radiation, now called "Hawking radiation" (1974).
His life was shown in the film "The Theory of Everything" (2014), for which Eddie Redmayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
His other books include "The Universe in a Nutshell" (2001), "The Grand Design" (2010) and "Brief Answers to the Big Questions" (2018).
Other popular science writers:
Carl Sagan: "Cosmos" (1980) and "Pale Blue Dot".
Richard Feynman: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!".
Albert Einstein: "Relativity: The Special and the General Theory" (1916).
Richard Dawkins: "The Selfish Gene" (1976).
Why not the other options?
- ✗Carl Sagan wrote "Cosmos".
Richard Feynman wrote "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!".
Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity.
Quick tip
Remember: "A Brief History of Time" (1988) = Stephen Hawking (Hawking radiation; Lucasian Professor; ALS; film "The Theory of Everything"); "Cosmos" = Carl Sagan; "The Selfish Gene" = Dawkins.
💬 Discussions on this question
Ask a doubt ›Still stuck on this question? Ask our faculty and fellow students — answers appear here.
Ask a doubtMore Books & Authors Questions
View all ›More General Knowledge Questions
- Q1.The techniques of Rasa and Bhava used in Indian classical dance trace their origin to which ancient text?Indian Dance Forms
- Q2.Lavani, Powada, Koli, Waghya Murali and Dhangari Gaja are folk dances of which state?Indian Dance Forms
- Q3.The one-act play associated with the Sattriya tradition of Assam is called:Indian Dance Forms
- Q4.Which dance form of Goa is known as the 'Warrior Dance'?Indian Dance Forms
- Q5.Manipuri dance is based on the Rasleela themes of:Indian Dance Forms
Books & Authors — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Books & Authors, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers famous books and their authors, including ancient Indian texts, works of the freedom struggle, classic and modern literature, autobiographies of famous people, and recently published books by well-known personalities. Questions usually name a book and ask for its author, or the other way round. Ancient and historical books, such as Arthashastra (Kautilya), Indica (Megasthenes) and Gitanjali (Rabindranath Tagore), are tested most often. Autobiographies are another favourite, so learn titles such as 'My Experiments with Truth' (Mahatma Gandhi) and 'Wings of Fire' (A. P. J. Abdul Kalam). Practise the books and authors questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.