Historical Report - Stephen Hawking

Historical Report

Stephen Hawking

ERAU

Physics 301

Astronomy

Spring 2010

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Name of historical person:

Stephen Hawking

Dates person lived:

Born January 8, 1942-Present

Where person was born:

Oxford, England

Where person did most important work:

Hawking graduated from Oxford and moved on to Cambridge to study under the legendary Fred Hoyle. Hoyle was the most distinguished British astronomer of the time. Instead, Hawking worked with Dennis Sciama in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

Person’s most famous accomplishments:

After he obtained his PhD, he began to look for a paid fellowship to continue his research. He didn’t have to look very far. He obtained a fellowship at Cambridge and continued his work on singularities. His 1966 essay entitled “Singularities and the Geometry of Space-time” won the Adams prize. Hawking was working closely with Penrose at this time. Together, they produced some fascinating work that is now at the very heart of Big Bang Cosmology.

A singularity is a point of infinite density and zero volume. Intuition tells us that such a point would not be possible, but such points are predicted by the theory of relativity. A star of sufficient volume that collapses under its own gravity shrinks to a point of zero surface area therefore, it has no volume. Also, since the volume of the matter involved in the collapse shrinks to zero, the density of the region must be infinite. This star has become a black hole, a gravitational field so strong that nothing can escape its pull. The singularity idea also applies to the Big Bang. In 1970 Hawking and Penrose published a paper that proved that the Big Bang contained a singularity. Hawking and Penrose did run into some problems along the way, because the math needed to do their calculations didn’t exist. So they devised new mathematical techniques to do the calculations required to prove their theories.

Other information:...