Why Doesn't the Earth Fall Up?

Answers nine questions about motion, explaining Newton's Laws of Motion, gravity, centrifugal force, and other principles of movement.

Grade 3-5 Four cartoon kids and an omniscient narrator explore nine questions about motion: motions which children can cause and watch, how they can detect motions that they cannot feel, Newton's laws, center of gravity, orbits, and pendula. Along the way, there are simple experiments and brief mention of Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus. It's all very short and simple, in an open, appealing format, and for the most part the science does not suffer from the simplification. One could wish, however, that in speaking of "big, high swings" versus "small, low swings," Cobb had made it clearer that she only meant to consider differences in the angle that the pendulum swings through and not in the length of the lever arm. Neil Ardley's Making Things Move (Watts, 1984) has many more simple experiments about motion, but with less explanation. Forces in Action (Gloucester Pr, 1986) by Kathryn Whyman briefly discusses aspects of motion leading up to simple machines, with fewer experiments. Both the Ardley and Whyman books are in aggressive full color and neither conveys any sense of history or humor. Why Doesn't the Earth Fall Up? has plenty of both, the humor largely thanks to Enik's line drawings, and that's not a bad way to introduce kids to physics. Margaret Chatham, formerly at Smithtown Library, N.Y.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.