The Clock Mirage

“[A] mind-stretching book…skilfully written…[Mazur] has…considerately inserted human “interludes” between the scientific sections.”—John Carey, The Sunday Times“About as free-ranging a meditation on time as you will find.“—Matt Hutson, Wall Street Journal“With a narrative punctuated by personal stories of time’s effects on truck drivers, Olympic racers, prisoners, and clockmakers, Mazur’s journey is filled with fascinating insights into how our technologies, our bodies, and our attitudes can change our perceptions. Ultimately, time reveals itself as something that rides on the rhythms of our minds. The Clock Mirage presents an innovative perspective that will force us to rethink our relationship with time, and how best to use it.”—Boomers Daily “Beautifully done…Mazur’s first love is theory, and he handles it well, using Zeno’s paradoxes to unpack the close relationship between psychology and mathematics.”—Simon Ings, Spectator“This book is not so much about time but the human relationship with it, and if we modify its flow by interaction. It is a refreshingly oblique look at something we all experience every moment of our lives yet tend to see as a given.“—Jenny Randles, Magonia Review“Within a mere 230 pages of text, this all makes for a feature-packed, multi-dial super-watch of a book. It bristles with intellectual widgets cunningly squeezed into a machine of modest size. Mazur does the heavy lifting of scientific synopsis and explanation with polished assurance…. Readers will learn plenty from The Clock Mirage, be stretched by it, and have fun en route. It passes the time enjoyably and lproductively.“—Boyd Tonkin, The Arts Desk“Marvellous…[Mazur] covers just about every other theorist of time with grace and wit, explains why time speeds up when you’ve got a fever and slows down when you think you’re in danger, and he even finds the time to talk to everyone from city traders to truck-drivers about their very different experiences of clock-watching.“—Christopher Bray, The Critic“Mazur opens an intellectual Pandora’s Box and marvels fly out. Our familiarity with time misleads us into thinking it is simple, when it is paradoxical, elusive, and counterintuitive. Highly enjoyable and informative.”—Ian Stewart, author of Do Dice Play God?“A sweeping story in search of answers to a tantalizing mystery: what is time? Mazur offers an astonishing array of ideas, interviews and exposition, exploring time from many fascinating viewpoints.”—Robyn Arianrhod, author of Thomas Harriot: A Life in Science“Mazur has an uncanny ability to engage both a scientific and lay audience through an intertwining of mathematics with tender considerations of humanity, affectingly guiding us to consider our own mortality: the clock winding down within each of us.”—Kia Corthron, playwright and author of The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize“A journey of discovery in which Mazur, wise in the ways of the wild, invites us to see the edges of the known. This powerful investigation combines formidable research, mathematical expertise, and profound contemplations.”—William Goldbloom Bloch, author of The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges’ Library of Babel“An expansive meditation on the meanings of time. As masterful teacher and earnest fellow traveler, Mazur leads us with heartfelt compassion, philosophical musings, and clear mathematical explanations, to find ourselves at the heart of it all.”—Gizem Karaali, Editor of Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Joseph Mazur is professor emeritus of mathematics at Marlboro College. His previous books include Euclid in the Rainforest: Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math and Fluke: The Math and Myth of Coincidence.