Why Does a Ball Bounce?: 101 Questions You Never Thought of Asking

Simple answers to 100 truly perplexing questions.

Curiosity spans all ages as kids, teenagers and adults have lots of questions about everyday occurrences they never think to ask.

Why does syrup spiral off the spoon? Which metals can be recycled? The answers to these and 98 other important questions about life, the universe and a whole lot more are found in Why Does a Ball Bounce?

Fully illustrated with color photographs, this book explains complex ideas in easy-to-understand terms. The book's 100 questions are organized into the following topics:

• Air: bouncing balls, bursting bubbles, fizzy drinks
• Earth: mountain-making, lava, the age of the Earth
• Plants: sowing wild oats, why the numbers 3, 5, 8, and 13 crop up so often in plants
• Fire and ice: the sparkler's sparks, why skates slide, what is dew
• Water: why water ripples, how soap works, bouncing rain
• Food: seeing underground, why barley needs the sun
• Weather: overflowing drains, sky color, seeing the wind
• Electricity: why electricity sparks, hair standing on end, shrinking computers
• Mathemagic: seeing musical notes, how knots work, swinging pendulums
• Little critters: worm heads, how slugs breathe, patient spiders
• Health and sickness: dilating pupils, smoking facts, vaccination safety
• Technology: level playing fields, stone age tools, the first computer.

Why Does A Ball Bounce? is the ideal title for anyone who needs to explain these ideas to children, students... or just to themselves.

Adam Hart-Davis is a scientist, photographer, writer and broadcaster.