This book delivers a quantitative account of the science of cosmology, designed to a non-specialist audience. The basic principles are outlined using simple mathematics and physics, but still providing rigorous models of the universe. It offers an ideal introduction to the key ideas in cosmology, without going into technical details. The approach used is based on the fundamental ideas of general relativity, such as the spacetime interval, comoving coordinates, and spacetime curvature.

It provides an up to date and thoughtful discussion of the big bang and the crucial issues of structure and galaxy formation. Questions of method and philosophical approaches in cosmology are also briefly discussed. Advanced undergraduates in either physics or mathematics would benefit greatly from the book's use either as a course text or as a supplementary guide to cosmology courses.