Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities - Softcover

Christopher Jargodzki; Franklin Potter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0471569615 ISBN 13: 9780471569619

Publisher: Wiley, 2000

Synopsis

Why is there eight times more ice in Antarctica than in the Arctic? Why can you warm your hands by blowing gently, and cool your hands by blowing hard? Why would a pitcher scuff a baseball?Which weighs more-a pound of feathers or a pound of iron? Let science experts Christopher Jargodzki and Franklin Potter guide you through the curiosities of physics and you'll find the answers to these and hundreds of other quirky conundrums. You'll discover why sounds carry well over water (especially in the summer), how a mouse can be levitated in a magnetic field, why backspin is so important when shooting a basketball, and whether women are indeed as strong as men.

With nearly 400 questions and answers on everything from race cars to jumping fleas to vanishing elephants, Mad about Physics presents a comprehensive collection of braintwisters and paradoxes that will challenge and entertain even the brainiest of science lovers. Whether you're a physicist by trade or just want to give your brain a power workout, this collection of intriguing and unusual physics challenges will send you on a highly entertaining ride that reveals the relevance of physics in our everyday lives.

About this title

About the Author:

CHRISTOPHER P. JARGODZKI, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Physics at Central Missouri State University and the author of two previous books of science braintwisters. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, and received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in theoretical physics from the University of California. FRANKLIN POTTER, Ph.D., is an Associate Specialist in Physics at the University of California at Irvine and conducts research in elementary particle physics and cosmology. He received his B.S. degree from Cal Tech and Ph.D. in physics from Texas Tech University.

From Booklist:

This entertaining book is sure to appeal to anyone with an interest in what makes the world work the way it does. The question-and-answer format makes for easy comprehension, and the authors' explanations of even the most complicated phenomena are always clear and precise. Readers for whom the term science book conjures up memories of school textbooks will be pleasantly surprised by this volume's readability. Although some of the 397 questions discuss complex subjects, others address such seemingly mundane issues as why the little plastic "drinking bird" toy keeps on drinking and why, if you pay close attention, you can see more meteors near morning than in the middle of the night. And many of the answers are downright stunning, at least for general readers: a pound of feathers, for instance, really does weigh more than a pound of iron. The book's balance between the simple and the complex means it should appeal to all readers, no matter what their degree of expertise. A good choice for anyone who enjoyed David Feldman's popular Imponderable series. David Pitt
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About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0471569615
• ISBN 13: 9780471569619
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320