The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Physics

Oxford New York

Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires

Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul

Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai

Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw

and associated companies in

Berlin Ibadan

Copyright © 1999 by Julian Barbour

First published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 1999

First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2001

198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016

Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barbour, Julian B.

The end of time: the next revolution in our

understanding of the universe/by Julian Barbour.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13 978-0-19-511729-5; 978-0-19-514592-2 (pbk.)

1. Space and time. 2. Relativity (Physics).

3. Quantum theory. I. Title.

QC173.59.S65 B374 2000

530.11 21—dc21 99-044319

9 10

Printed in the United States of America

on acid-free paper