{
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  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "title": "What Is Time?",
  "subtitle": null,
  "slug": "what-is-time",
  "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/gerald-james-whitrow/what-is-time",
  "json": "https://www.bookquiver.com/gerald-james-whitrow/what-is-time.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.bookquiver.com/gerald-james-whitrow/what-is-time.md",
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Gerald James Whitrow",
      "slug": "gerald-james-whitrow",
      "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/gerald-james-whitrow"
    }
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  "language": "en_US",
  "original_title": null,
  "original_language": null,
  "first_published": "2003-12-11",
  "genres": [
    {
      "code": "PDZ",
      "heading": "Popular science"
    },
    {
      "code": "PG",
      "heading": "Astronomy, space and time"
    },
    {
      "code": "PH",
      "heading": "Physics"
    }
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  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/oup-oxford/gerald-james-whitrow/what-is-time_978-01-9860-781-6-54c93ba6.webp?v=2026-11-12%2012%3A42%3A06",
  "description": "G. J. Whitrow (1912-2000) begins this classic exploration of the nature of time with a story about a Russian poet, visiting London before the First World War. The poet's English was not too good and when he asked a man in the street, 'Please, what is time?' he received the response, 'Butthat's a philosophical question. Why ask me?'. Starting from this simple anecdote, Professor Whitrow takes us on a good-humored and wide-ranging tour of the thing that clocks keep (more or less). He discusses how our ideas of time originated; how far they are inborn in plants and animals; how time has been measured, from sundial and hourglassto the caesium clock, and whether time possesses a beginning, a direction, and an end. He coaxes the diffident layman to contemplate with pleasure the differences between cyclic, linear, biological, cosmic, and space-time, and he provides frequent diversions into fascinating topics such as theMayan calendar, the migration of birds, the dances of bees, precognition, and the short, crowded lives of mu-mesons, particles produced by cosmic-ray showers that exist for just two millionths of a second. This reissue of the classic and authoritative What is Time? includes a new introduction by Dr J. T. Fraser, founder of the International Society for the Study of Time, and a bibliographic essay by Dr Fraser and Professor M. P. Soulsby of the Pennsylvania State University.",
  "editions": [
    {
      "title": "What Is Time?",
      "subtitle": null,
      "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/gerald-james-whitrow/what-is-time/9780198607816",
      "publisher": "OUP Oxford",
      "publisher_series": [],
      "translators": [],
      "medium": "paper",
      "duration_seconds": null,
      "narrators": [],
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      "cover_artists": [],
      "isbn": "978-01-9860-781-6",
      "pages": 186,
      "published": "2003-12-11",
      "language": "en_US",
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/oup-oxford/gerald-james-whitrow/what-is-time_978-01-9860-781-6-54c93ba6.webp?v=2026-11-12%2012%3A42%3A06"
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}