Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Rovelli) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Seven Brief Lessons on Physics...then take off on your own:

1. Rovelli deals with the most difficult issues of post-Newton physics: relativity, quantum physics, gravity, and much more. Consider each chapter at a time: which concepts do you find easiest to grasp...and which most difficult?

2. Overall, does Rovelli present these complex theories in a manner that lay people can understand? Where does he succeed, and where does he fall short?

3. Consider Rovelli's concept of time: it exists only when there is heat. Nothing in physics means "now"—time is only a matter of statistics. Do you grasp this esoteric idea of something we depend on in our personal lives...day by day, minute by minute? In other words how do you square Rovelli's cosmic idea of time with the concept of metrical time? Time based on entropy? Or on the earth's revolution around the sun? Einstein's time is bent by gravity. How does Rovelli's thermodynamic approach jibe with any of these concepts of time?

4. Discuss the concept of how one thing and its opposite can both be true at the same time. What other physics concepts fly in the face of "common sense"?

5. "The world seems to be less about objects than about interactive relationships," Rovelli writes. He seems to mean that everything exists only in its relationship to something else. Can you explain this more thoroughly, or find examples?

6. Rovelli says that studying physics is part of being human, that it is a way to connect us with ourselves as well as with the greater cosmos. Discuss what he means. Do you agree?

7. What are the new frontiers of physics? Where do physicists go from here according to Rovelli? Has science run up against a wall, as some physicists have worried? Or are there promises of new answers yet to come for some of the most stubborn scientific questions?

8. Talk about the book's last chapter, which encourages us to become more self-aware before it is too late. "All of our cousins are already extinct," Rovelli points out. What does he mean by self-awareness and what are the consequences of its lack? What do you take away from Rovelli's admonitions?

9. What does Rovelli have to say about free will?

10. Rovelli refers to physics as an adventure. Is it for you? Or is it a slog? Or is physics still something so arcane that it's nearly impossible for you to grasp? How have you come away from Seven Brief Lessons? Enlightened a lot? Enlightened somewhat? Or as befuddled as you were beforehand?

(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, feel free to use these, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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