This is a thoughtful debut by Czerski, a physicist/oceanographer. I can honestly say that you will not see everyday things in the same light again if you read this book and so, if you have any interest in how the world works and the strange, amazing patterns within it, give this a try.Īuthor and PhD Helen Czerski loves physics and wants others to share her enthusiasm. She does not dumb down her writing, but simply makes it accessible, understandable and entirely riveting. You have such titles as, “What goes up must come down,” “Why don’t ducks get cold feet?” and “Spoons, Spirals and Sputnik.” Who can resist? Being a child of the Seventies, when science was not a compulsory subject, my scientific knowledge is less than zero, but I found myself enthused by this book. From these innocuous springboards, she uses these examples to investigate much greater events in science and technology, using these seemingly simple beginnings.Įven the chapter titles in this book are delightful. Each chapter begins with something everyday – something small such as trying to get ketchup from a bottle or stirring a cup of tea.
How many times have you heard someone say (possibly one of your children…) that a particular subject at school is not relevant to them personally? In this book, author Helen Czerski attempts to show us how physics affects everyday life. You may never look at your toaster the same way. But just occasionally a small one can produce something delicious”) gravity (drop some raisins in a bottle of carbonated lemonade and watch the whoosh of bubbles and the dancing raisins at the bottom bumping into each other) size (Czerski explains the action of the water molecules that cause the crime-scene stain left by a puddle of dried coffee) and time (why it takes so long for ketchup to come out of a bottle).Īlong the way, she provides answers to vexing questions: How does water travel from the roots of a redwood tree to its crown? How do ducks keep their feet warm when walking on ice? Why does milk, when added to tea, look like billowing storm clouds? In an engaging voice at once warm and witty, Czerski shares her stunning breadth of knowledge to lift the veil of familiarity from the ordinary. She guides us through the principles of gases (“Explosions in the kitchen are generally considered a bad idea. In Storm in a Teacup, Helen Czerski provides the tools to alter the way we see everything around us by linking ordinary objects and occurrences, like popcorn popping, coffee stains, and fridge magnets, to big ideas like climate change, the energy crisis, or innovative medical testing. But these familiar surroundings are just the place to look if you’re interested in what makes the universe tick.
#STORM IN A TEACUP THE PHYSICS OF EVERYDAY LIFE MOBI FULL#
Our home here on Earth is messy, mutable, and full of humdrum things that we touch and modify without much thought every day.
But did you know that the key to unveiling the secrets of the cosmos is as close as the nearest toaster? Take a look up at the stars on a clear night and you get a sense that the universe is vast and untouchable, full of mysteries beyond comprehension. (Jan.A physicist explains daily phenomena from the mundane to the magisterial. “It’s all one big adventure,” she writes, “because you don’t know where it will take you next.” Agent: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit. Czerski’s accessible explanations share the wonder of experimentation and the pleasure of figuring things out.
Czerski’s writing is playful and witty: London’s Tower Bridge is “Narnia for engineers,” cyclists zoom around a velodrome “like demented hamsters on a gigantic wheel,” and chapter titles such as “Why Don’t Ducks Get Cold Feet?” and “Spoons, Spirals, and Sputnik” draw readers into diverse-and memorable-explorations of such diverse topics as matter phase changes and why dropped toast tends to land buttered side down. The slosh of a cup of tea grows into a look at earthquakes. Spinning an egg offers insight into spiral galaxies, and considering bubbles and marine snail snot can reveal how fluids behave. A quick lesson in “ballistic cooking”-why popcorn pops-and imagining how an elephant uses its trunk segues into understanding how rockets work. She begins her discussion with ordinary popcorn. In this delightful pop science title, Czerski, a physicist at University College London, shows that understanding how the universe works requires little more than paying attention to patterns and figuring out increasingly refined ways to explain them.
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