physics

Wrinkles in Time

Wrinkles in Time is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wrinkles in Time rather than just read about it. In short: Wrinkles in Time is a book on cosmology by the Nobel laureate physicist George Smoot and Keay Davidson, a science writer for the San Francisco Examiner. It was published in 1994 by William Morrow in hardback.

Key takeaways

Wrinkles in Time belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wrinkles in Time to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wrinkles in Time from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wrinkles in Time is a book on cosmology by the Nobel laureate physicist George Smoot and Keay Davidson, a science writer for the San Francisco Examiner. It was published in 1994 by William Morrow in hardback.

Summary On April 23, 1992, a scientific team led by astrophysicist George Smoot announced that it had found the primordial "seeds" from which the universe has grown. They analyzed data gathered by NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer satellite and discovered the oldest known objects in the universe—so called "wrinkles" in time—thus finding a long-anticipated missing piece in the Big Bang model. In this book, Smoot tells the remarkable tale of his quest for what has been called the cosmologists' Holy Grail. His quest for the seeds of structure in the universe consumed about twenty years. The book traces the obstacle course of discovery. In the book, Smoot describes the adventure and along the way he brings the reader up to date in cosmology, giving brief introductions to some important concepts and discoveries in physics and cosmology. The research in the book eventually resulted in Smoot winning the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics, and the book was reprinted in 2007 as a result of the new interest generated by the award. On the cover of the reprint, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking calls Smoot's observations in the book "the scientific discovery of the century, if not of all time".

Contents Preface In the Beginning The Dark Night Sky The Expanding Universe Cosmological Conflict In Search of Antiworlds Spy in the Sky A Different Universe The Heart of Darkness The Inflationary Universe The Promise of Space COBE: The Aftermath First Glimpse of Wrinkles An Awful Place to Do Science Toward the Ultimate Question Appendix: Contributors to COBE To Dig Deeper: Further Readings Acknowledgments Index

In popular culture Wrinkles in Time was featured in an episode of The Big Bang Theory. In the episode "The Terminator Decoupling", Leonard Hofstadter was reading a copy of the book on the train. At the end of the episode, author George Smoot made a cameo appearance.

Editions Smoot, George; Keay Davidson (1994). Wrinkles in Time. William Morrow & Company. ISBN 0-380-72044-2.

References

External links What's next: George Smoot at TEDxCERN on YouTube George Smoot: The design of the universe on YouTube

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wrinkles in Time

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wrinkles in Time claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wrinkles in Time before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wrinkles in Time ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wrinkles in Time

In research: Wrinkles in Time appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wrinkles in Time in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wrinkles in Time is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1994 non-fiction books, Cosmology books, Popular physics books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wrinkles in Time outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Wrinkles in Time” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Wrinkles in Time in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wrinkles in Time means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wrinkles in Time out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wrinkles in Time in simple terms?

Why does Wrinkles in Time matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wrinkles in Time?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wrinkles in Time.