The Physics of Everyday Things: The Extraordinary Science Behind an Ordinary Day

by James Kakalios

Physics professor, bestselling author, and dynamic storyteller James Kakalios reveals the mind-bending science behind the seemingly basic things that keep our daily lives running, from our smart phones and digital clouds to x-ray machines and hybrid vehicles.

Most of us are clueless when it comes to the physics that makes our modern world so convenient. What s the simple physics behind motion sensors, touch screens, and toasters? How do we glide through tolls using an E-Z Pass, or find our way to new places using GPS? InThe Physics of Everyday Things, James Kakalios takes us on an amazing journey into the wild subatomic world that underlies so much of what we use and take for granted.
Breaking down the world of things into sections that outline a single day, Kakalios satisfies our curiosity about how our refrigerators keep our food cool, how a plane manages to remain airborne, and how our wrist fitness monitors keep track of our steps. Each explanation is coupled with a story showing the astonishing science at work and revealing the interplay of the invisible forces that surround us. Through this narrative physics, The Physics of Everyday Things demonstrates that far from the abstractions conjured by phrases like the Higgs Boson, black holes, and gravity waves sophisticated science is also quite practical. With his signature clarity and cleverness, Kakalios enthralls us with the principles that make up our lives and opens our imaginations."

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Audiobook, Popular Science, Technology, Stem

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 16, 2017

About the author

James Kakalios is a physics professor at the University of Minnesota. Known within the scientific community for his work with amorphous semiconductors, granular materials, and 1/f noise, he is known to the general public as the author of the book The Physics of Superheroes, which considers comic book superheroes from the standpoint of fundamental physics.
Kakalios, who earned PhD from the University of Chicago in 1985, began his comic book collection as a graduate student as a way to relieve stress. At Minnesota, he taught a freshman seminar that focused on the physics of superheroes as a way to motivate students to think about physics. This course gained great popularity as an enticing alternative to the typical inclined planes and pulleys of physics.
The seminar was a great success, leading to articles in popular magazines including People, lectures on the subject, and publication of The Physics of Superheroes. In his talks, favorite examples are the death of Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man's girlfriend), "can Superman jump over tall buildings and what does this tell us about Krypton?", the high-velocity actions of The Flash, and the shrinking problem of the Atom. His analysis of Gwen Stacy's death eventually became integral to the plot of a new Spider-Man comic.
Kakalios is of the opinion that the most unrealistic aspect of the comic-book universe is often the sociology. He notes that pedestrians don't usually provide running monologues describing everything around them. There is one aspect of the story of the Atom that he does not question, however. The Atom begins as a physics professor, who encounters a chunk of white dwarf star and picks it up. "By a conservative estimate, he is lifting about 5000 metric tons. This is not unreasonable," Kakalios will say at the end of his talk, taking off his glasses before walking offstage. "We physics professors are just that strong."
He provides content on the DVD of the film Watchmen. Under extras, he is filmed discussing the physics of superheroes.
Dr. Kakalios has been nominated by the University of Minnesota to be one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Nifty Fifty Speakers who will speak about his work and career to middle and high school students in October 2010.

Reviews

[Kara Babcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really loved James Kakalios’ The Physics of Superheroes , so I jumped at the chance to get his new book, The Physics of Everyday Things, when it became available on NetGalley. The Physics of Superheroes was such an engaging way to look at physics! I was intrigued by this new concept, the idea that Kakalios would teach us physics while stepping through a single person’s ordinary daily activities. However, the tone and conceptual density of this book leave it somewhat lacklustre compared to my (admittedly faded) memory of the first book of his.

The Physics of Everyday Things starts with waking up and making breakfast and ends with a business presentation and a trip back to a hotel. Along the way, our protagonist drives through toll booths, has an x-ray, goes through airport security, takes a flight, and engages in all sorts of activities that rely on our society’s exploitation of physics. Kakalios pulls the curtain back on the technology we depend on, and the secrets he reveals really are quite fascinating.

One of my enduring understandings, particularly from taking a Philosophy of Science and Technology course back in university, is how artificially we separate different types of technology in our minds. For example, a pencil or a pen are technologies. Chairs are technology. My glasses are a technology—and assistive technology, at that. These things are so ubiquitous, cheap, and reliable that they have faded into the background noise of life. Vehicles are more recognizable as technology, or as a collection of technologies, but are also so much a part of our life that we tend to think of them differently. Digital tech—that is, something with a computer somewhere in its guts—is almost always what people think of nowadays when they hear “technology”. Yet so many technologies that once were analog are now digital and computerized, from toasters to clocks, not to mention the scary and possibly doomed Internet of Things.

Kakalios engages with a lot of digital technologies in The Physics of Everyday Things, from credit card readers and wireless communications to touchscreens and LCD projectors. However, he also highlights technology we take for granted, or technology that it might never occur to us to question how it works. One of my favourite examples might be an explosive trace detector, as seen in airport security screenings. Kakalios explains how the machine ionizes and then measures the rate at which gas molecules make it through a test chamber to determine what type of molecule it’s dealing with. That’s really neat and not something I would ever have considered. Similarly, I loved his explanations of comparably simpler phenomena, like the fact that coils in things like toasters (not to mention microwave ovens) mean we are cooking with light.

So as a reader of popular science, this book admirably ticks the “chock full of scientific information” box. There are also diagrams!

Where I struggled was more with Kakalios’ patter. He explains things very well; I didn’t often feel lost or confused or in too deep. Yet I just wasn’t … invested. At all. I didn’t care about the gimmick—I’m not saying it’s a bad gimmick, but I just have no connection to this unnamed hypothetical person whose day we’re stalking. It didn’t enhance my reading experience; I feel like if the book had just said, “Hey, we’re going to explain how these x number of inventions work!” I would have enjoyed it more.

I have a theory for why this didn’t hold my interest, though I’m not sure it’s true. Most of the popular science books I read examine science with a historical mindset. The authors explain scientific and technological discoveries and innovations by talking about the people and circumstances that led to them. The Physics of Everyday Things notably retains the spatial location of a technology (where we use it) but strips the temporal aspect (its history and invention). Kakalios doesn’t often mention who came up with an idea, who discovered how to use something, why a particular technology took off. And so I realize that maybe I enjoy the history of science as much as the science itself (it’s this damn unicorn math/English brain again). But it’s hard to test this theory, because I think Kakalios’ book stands out in this regard.

And so, maybe, if you’re not so much into the history of inventions and just want to know how they work, this book might be your jam. It is also the right length—I’m finding that with some of these non-fiction books I’m reading electronically, that percent count never seems to increase as fast as I’d like, no matter how fast I’m reading. The Physics of Everyday Things isn’t long, but it’s dense enough to be educational.

Would I recommend this? Conditionally. I can’t get as excited about it as I can with other science books. I’m not sure a casual reader is going to pick this up and read it cover-to-cover. But for a DIY-type person, a hardware enthusiast who likes to get their hands dirty but lacks the scientific background on the subject, this could be a cool exploration of these topics.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get into this, although it seems like a neat idea. He puts us in a typical day & describes the physics behind each item that typically use. Since there was nothing new to me, I tried to keep the point of view that this was for my grandson or someone else that wanted to learn about the world they live in. I don't think it's particularly good at that, though. I thought his explanations were often confusing. They seemed to be aimed at teaching the basics of physics, but often used large words or got into advanced concepts. He also skipped important basic information. For instance, he mentions atoms sticking together as if they were attached by springs, but doesn't say why that is so. Seems to me he should have at least mentioned why & how they attach in the first place.

It was well narrated & maybe it will appeal to others, but I won't recommend it & I moved along without finishing it.

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

This popular science book explains how all the things that make life so convenient in these times work. Lots of great science.

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book because it is always fun to find out how things work. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my hopes. I could tell just a few pages in that Kakalios assumes his readers have a basic knowledge of physics, such as having taken a high school class. He assumes readers know terms like mass, amplitude, digital, magnetic polarities, magnetic induction and infrared radiation because he uses them early on without defining them. He assumes readers know about voltage and why 110 is higher than 120.

He writes early on about moving electric charges generating a magnetic field but does not explain why or how. (4) I wish he would have explained early and well the relationship of electric and magnetic fields and how one affects the other and used lots of diagrams. That would have made the explanation of an electric tooth brush recharger much easier to understand, for example. (He finally has a diagram later, on page 43.)

When explaining the principles of a refrigerator, he assume readers know how a gas being compressed to a liquid gives up heat. He writes about molecules with kinetic energy and that may be confusing to readers. Kakalios had earlier explained kinetic energy using a pendulum but never transferred the concept to molecules and how some have more kinetic energy than others.

Sometimes I found his writing just confusing. When writing about a pendulum, he writes of increasing the potential energy of the bob by “lifting it up.” (2) I pictured lifting the bob up vertically. What he really meant was to grasp the bob and swing it to the side in an arc, making sure the string remained taut.

Here's another example of his writing when discussing a thermometer and the thermal expansion of a liquid when heated. “This leads to a small but real net relative displacement of the atom with rising temperature.” (68) He could have written, “That means the space the atom occupies increases as the temperature rises.”

That being said, there are aspects of this book I like. Kakalois explains many interesting phenomena, such as CAT scans and MRIs, airport scanners, noise canceling earphones, touch screens and many more. I learned much, like what kind of radiation is harmful and what kind is non-ionizing. I learned that the radio signals from the chip in my credit card has a short range of about four feet so others cannot eavesdrop on my transaction. I found out the code for my remote entry fob changes every time I use it, as does the coordinated receiver.

Some of his explanations were great, such as the movie theater illustration representing semiconductors. It was clearly understandable. I wish there had been many more illustrations in the book as many of Kakalois' explanations would have been much easier to understand with them.

If you have a high school background in physics and understand many physics terms, you will appreciate this book and benefit from what is in it. If you do not have a familiarity with scientific terms, you may have difficulty understanding this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh dear. I took everything difficult in school, even calculus. Except physics. Now I am glad I didn't. I'd hoped this book might fill in the gap in my education, but, frankly, I couldn't understand much of this book. It might be because I'm not a science-y person. It might be because I don't understand the basic concepts. It might be because I'm too old. But I didn't get this book.

Here's a bit, so you can test this book for yourself:

'A pendulum is a very simple device, consisting of a string, fixed at one end, with a mass, termed the "bob," attached at the other end. The oscillations of the pendulum bob provide visual confirmation of one of the most important concepts in physics, that of the principle of conservation of energy: "kinetic energy," the energy of motion, can only be converted to "potential energy" (the energy associated with a force acting on an object and the distance over which that force can cause motion) and vice versa....'

Huh?

I guess I was hoping for something a little more basic.

[Yesenia Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love physics even though I understand 60% of the verbiage I just love the way it sounds when explained! I always have to consume my science in audio or else I wouldn't be able to complete the book.

[Killian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was... not for me. The title and description lead me to believe this was going to be an approachable way to look at the science of our everyday lives. However, it ended up feeling like one of those videos they show you in school. They are educational, vanilla ice cream levels of boring, the voice-overs are bland and even-toned, and they manage to make even the most interesting topics sleep-worthy. So it can hardly be a surprise that I kept wanting to fall asleep every time I even thought of picking this book up again. I ended up mostly skimming the back half, and while it seemed he picked interesting topics, the writing itself was just too blah for me to actually read it.

Copy courtesy of Crown Publishing via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Book Shark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Physics of Everyday Things: The Extraordinary Science Behind an Ordinary Day by James Kakalios

“The Physics of Everyday Things” is an average book that describes the science behind an ordinary day. Physics professor and bestselling author James Kakalios engages the curiosity of the reader by describing the physics behind our modern daily conveniences. This curious 225-page book includes the following seven chapters: 1. You Begin Your Day, 2. You Drive into the City, 3. You Go to the Doctor, 4. You Go to the Airport, 5. You Take a Flight, 6. You Give a Business Presentation, and 7. You Go to a Hotel.

Positives:
1. A well-written book.
2. An excellent topic, explaining the physics behind an ordinary day.
3. Great idea of describing the science of modern everyday conveniences.
4. Describes key concepts of physics. “Moving electric charges, as in a current, generate a magnetic field (this is known as Ampere’s law); the faster they move, the larger the magnetic field.”
5. Applies the science behind everyday conveniences. “A toaster employs the first law of thermodynamics, which states that for any closed system, the total amount of work and heat must remain unchanged.”
6. Makes good use of quotes by scientists to help explain concepts. “To paraphrase theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler, in general relativity, matter tells space how to bend, and space tells matter how to move.”
7. Elevators explained. “An elevator is essentially a pulley, with a cable that loops over a cylindrical drum. One end of the cable is affixed to the elevator car and the other to a counterweight. The size of the counterweight is chosen to reflect the weight of the car with its average occupancy, typically 40 percent of the maximum capacity of the car. By making the counterweight as close as possible to the weight of the car, we minimize the energy needed to raise or lower the elevator car.”
8. The basis of ultrasound imaging. “The fact that the speed of sound varies with the density of the medium is the basis of ultrasound imaging.”
9. Explains how information is stored on your credit card. “Information about your charge account is stored on your credit card in different forms: the account number itself is printed on the front of the card; there is a quarter-inch-wide magnetic stripe running along the length of the card; and, in some versions, a memory chip is embedded within the card. Each storage mechanism uses different physical principles.”
10. The science of flying. “The energy to rotate the propeller comes from the combustion of fossil fuel, essentially the same physics that leads to rotational kinetic energy in a car. Greater speeds, necessary for larger lifting forces, are achieved using a jet engine.”
11. The science behind everyday office equipment. “Converting documents into a series of voltages, and these voltages back into a printed copy, is why a single device can function as a scanner, a fax machine, a printer, and a copier: it’s all the same physics!”
12. Radiation explained. “Any energy emission—whether of sound, electromagnetic waves, or high-speed subatomic particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, or combinations thereof) ejected from a nucleus—is termed “radiation” by physicists.”
13. Debunks myths. “The damage done to the cells by the ionizing radiation does not result in new, unstable radioactive nuclei, and thus irradiated food is not itself radioactive. This confusion between “radioactive” and “irradiated” is unfortunate, with the very terms so emotionally charged that many will avoid any process that involves nuclear decay, even at the cost of preventable sickness and death.”
14. Explains why we don’t have flying cars. “As just mentioned, it takes a considerable amount of energy to keep a car levitated in the air, and the vehicle needs to carry the source of this energy with it.”
15. Notes included.

Negatives:
1. Falls short of the goal of effectively explaining physics to the layperson.
2. Rudimentary stick illustrations.
3. Reader must understand the key recurring concept of changing electric currents create changing magnetic fields. Otherwise, you will fail to follow a lot of what the author is trying to convey.
4. At times, a dry tedious read.
5. No formal bibliography.

In summary, the execution of a great idea falls quite short. Clever idea to use everyday life to illustrate physics but I feel that laypersons will struggle with this book. The illustrations left a lot to be desired as well. There are much better books available for the public. On the other hand, if you have a basic understanding and curiosity for physics this book will meet your satisfaction. Average to good depending on your perspective.

Further recommendations: “For the Love of Physics” by Walter Lewin, “The Trouble With Physics” by Lee Smolin, “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics” by Carlo Rovelli, “Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics” by Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon, “The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell” by Basil Mahon, “The Electric Life of Michael Faraday” by Alan Hirshfeld, and “Tesla” by W. Bernard Carlson.

[Devyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads.

The Physics of Everyday Things: The Extraordinary Science Behind an Ordinary Day is the kind of book that makes you feel guilty for your low rating because it exposes the undeniable truth of your own stupidity.

Not really. It just feels like that.

My low rating is because I like my books to teach me difficult things painlessly , and to hold my attention . I did learn some pretty neat stuff, but my eyes glazed over for most of it and every page was a concentrated force of will to keep going. The only time I enjoyed this book was when I read about the few subjects I was already familiar with. Obviously that defeated the whole purpose of the book when I only truly engaged when I already knew the subject matter.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book to assist in my Physics class, and it turned out to be the best part of our class! My kids were able to see how often we really do interact with Physics and why it’s so great for people to study it (even if it’s not their personal favorite thing to study.) 4 stars bc sometimes it got a little more technical than we could keep up with, but we learned a lot nonetheless!

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, detailed and entertaining enough to be worth reading even if you are already familiar with some of the material. A good refresher for people who tend to forget the details easily (it's me, I'm the people).

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was kind of interesting. I also thought it was very technical and rather dry. The author mostly just talks about how common, every-day devices work--the physics of it all. He discusses things like GPS devices, card readers, and toasters. A lot of it went over my head, though I did enjoy his discussion of radiation and how microwaves work. He ends the book talking about the physics it would take to pull off a fantasy device--a flying car. That was pretty fun.

[Harry Harman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The current is large at the bottom of the arc, when the bob is moving at its fastest, and the current is zero at the top of the arc, when the bob is momentarily stationary. Moving electric charges, as in a current, generate a magnetic field (this is known as Ampere’s law). In turn, this changing magnetic field generates a varying electric field (known as Faraday’s law).

In the United States, the coils rotate sixty times a second, which is the frequency of the alternating voltage that is generated.

The fact that the voltage in the wall outlet varies smoothly back and forth sixty times a second means that it takes only 0.0167 second to complete one cycle. To slow this period down to one second, the coffeemaker’s timer uses specially designed chips that shift the frequency of the alternating voltage.

To play your podcast, or any music stored in its memory, your smartphone has to convert a numerical code into sound waves, which are changes in the density (hence pressure) of the air.

How does one convert electrical voltages into mechanical vibrations of the membrane so that we can hear the resulting sound waves? The varying electrical currents generate varying magnetic fields.

When the current flows in a clockwise direction, it generates a magnetic field oriented so that the north pole faces outward, toward the north pole of the permanent magnet. Because identical polarities repel each other, there is a force pushing the magnets apart, causing the membrane to flex outward. When the voltage direction is reversed, the current flows in the opposite direction (counterclockwise), and the magnetic field generated has a south pole facing the permanent magnet’s north pole. Changes in the voltage, in both frequency and amplitude, cause back-and-forth modulations in the membrane, which in turn generate sound waves.

A smartphone’s speakers are in its case, so the quality and volume of the music it plays are compromised. (If you want a quick and not-verydirty way to amplify the sound from your smartphone speakers, rest the phone’s speaker on the bottom of a large bowl, preferably one made of wood, and the sound will have a richer and deeper tone.

A device in which the current in one coil induces a current in a second coil, even though the coils are not directly connected, is called a “transformer” and has many uses—not just recharging the battery in your electric toothbrush.

When you put a piece of bread in a toaster and push the lever arm down, in addition to lowering the slice into the toaster, you are also closing a circuit that allows an electrical current to flow through the wires adjacent to the bread.

A toaster employs the first law of thermodynamics, which states that for any closed system, the total amount of work and heat must remain unchanged. When you close the circuit by pressing down on the lever, the current is forced through the wire, and thanks to the resistance in the wire, the electrical current’s energy is converted into heat.

The resistance of the wire leads to a transfer of kinetic energy from the electrical current to the atoms in the wire, causing them to vibrate more violently than before, a process known as “Joule heating.”*5 This is why nichrome is used in your toaster—it’s a good enough conductor to carry a current, but it also has a large resistance, to maximize the Joule heating.

heat of the toaster wire (which can be over 1,000°F)

A timer or temperature sensor is used to open the electrical circuit and stop this process, hopefully before your toast burns.

The second law of thermodynamics places limits on how well we can run this process in reverse, extracting heat and using it to do work, as in a refrigerator.

When you blow on your coffee, you are pushing these high-kinetic-energy molecules away from the cup, preventing them from returning to the liquid and redepositing their energy into the liquid. With those high-energy molecules no longer part of the coffee liquid-vapor system, the new average kinetic energy of all the molecules is lower than it was before, reflected in a lower temperature for your coffee.

Your refrigerator basically operates on the same principle but uses a different liquid instead of coffee. Refrigerators once used Freon but now have transitioned to tetrafluoroethane.

The pump forces the coolant through an expansion valve, allowing it to go from the narrow tube into a larger volume, where it undergoes a phase transition from the liquid to the vapor state. You have to add energy to a liquid to convert it to a vapor (consider boiling water), and that energy has to come from somewhere.

tetrafluoroethane pulls heat away from the interior walls of the refrigerator. The coolant liquid moves through a tube that makes a series of S-shaped turns in order to maximize its surface area in contact with the fridge walls. The density of S-shaped turns is higher in the freezer section so that more heat is extracted from this volume.

Because it takes energy to run the pump, there is a net cost of energy in running the refrigerator. The tubes in this part of the closedcycle system are placed behind the back of the fridge, next to the wall, so that they do not return their heat to the interior of the refrigerator. When a temperature sensor indicates that the desired internal temperature has been reached, the pump is turned off.

Sweat only cools when it evaporates, extracting energy from the skin to move from the liquid to the vapor state, lowering the average kinetic energy of the body. If the atmosphere is saturated with water vapor on a muggy day, then this process is inhibited and we can’t cool off as effectively. So physics says it really is true—it’s not the heat, but the humidity!

The toaster wire emits both infrared and red light. Electrons oscillating at much lower frequencies create radio waves.

robot overlords

The website address you type into the Internet browser is actually a nickname for a numerical address that is roughly the equivalent of a phone number. For websites, there are certain designated servers that have the location of the host computer sponsoring the requested site.

radio waves (wi-fi)

there is a small extra component to the force between atoms (called an “anharmonic term”)

The process of combining a series of x-ray images in slices to create a three-dimensional image is known as “tomography.” When it’s performed with a computer to resolve the shadows and extract a complete three-dimensional image, this type of x-ray imaging is called a CAT scan (for “computer-aided tomography”) or a CT scan.

As the string moves up, it collides with air molecules and pushes them in the direction the string is moving. The air molecules pushed by the string pile up, leaving a region that is relatively depleted of air molecules behind it.

Typical ultrasound generators used in medical imaging applications have a frequency of roughly two to three million cycles per second, well above the detection range of even a person (or dog) with excellent hearing. Sound waves with this high a frequency have a correspondingly short wavelength, which is desirable for imaging. of these devices is essentially the same as what’s at work when, looking out into the night through a window, you see your reflection in the glass.

the changing magnetic field of the MRI can cause heating in any metal inside your body, or even on your skin if there are metallic inks used in your tattoo.

After being injected with a form of glucose that has an abundance of magnetically active nuclei, the patients’ cancerous tumors take up this glucose faster than the surrounding noncancerous matter, and thus on an MRI these malignant regions appear brighter.

quick-response (QR) symbol

backscattering monitors the light scattered at the interface between changes in density.

He takes your bag to a stainless-steel table behind the checkpoint and wipes the outside of the bag with a small white paper disc. He places this disc into a large, box-shaped device that you note is labeled an explosive-trace detector.

trinitrotoluene (TNT). One such method used to select the TNT molecules from the crowd is called “ion mobility spectroscopy,”

I can distinguish between the van and the sports car by seeing which one crosses the finish line first, as long as they have the same engine, since the travel time depends on their mass and air drag differences.

One way to accomplish this is to remove one electron from each molecule, leaving them all with a net positive charge of +1. A negative voltage is applied at the finish-line end of the cylinder, and this pulls all molecules with the same force. The result is a spectrum of molecules separated by mass and size

(1) all batteries have the potential to release their stored energy in an uncontrolled manner if damaged, and (2) the high-energy density of lithium-ion batteries makes them particularly hazardous.

If you want to leave the surface of the Earth, whether in a hot air balloon or a supersonic jet, you need more air molecules to strike the bottom of your craft than the top

If the weight of the object is greater than the weight of the medium it displaces, it will sink; if it is lighter, it will float.

Two important steps are needed in order to photograph the image of the clouds using your phone. The first step is accomplished with a light-emitting diode run backward—that is, a lightabsorbing diode, otherwise known as a solar cell or “photodiode.” The second step involves arrays of capacitors that store these charges.

Noise-canceling headphones record the conversations of everyone else in the party, and instantly generate anti-waves

While most atoms have their electrons form pairs, north pole to south pole, so that the two of them together have no net magnetic field, in a few cases (such as iron or cobalt) a number of unpaired electrons (though not all of them) have their north and south poles all pointing in the same direction, giving the atom a net magnetic field. The natural tendency of the iron atoms is to have their magnetic fields point in the same direction

for a solar cell, light goes in and current comes out, while for an LED, current goes in and light comes out.

The QR symbol on your smartphone does the same thing, but it can represent a hundred times more information, being a twodimensional sequence of white and dark regions, rather than the onedimensional bar code.

When you speak into the microphone, the resistance of the collection of carbon grains varies precisely in proportion to the changes in air pressure from your speech, and the resulting modulations in the current passing through the cylinder will, when converted to a voltage, provide an electrical representation of your sound waves.

The microwaves generated in the oven induce polar molecules—such as the water in your food—to move rapidly back and forth, through interactions with the microwave’s electric field, just like a compass needle can be made to point in a given direction by an external magnetic field. The microwave’s electric f ield oscillates with a frequency of several billion cycles per second

when you try to pass a current through a material, it will flow where it is easiest (the “path of least resistance”)

A fitness monitor that tracks your steps measures minute changes in your acceleration in three dimensions, and when those changes cross certain preset thresholds, it records that a step has been taken, adding it to a running tally.

well into the twenty-first century, we still don’t have flying cars. Why? A car is a heavy object, and to lift it even a few feet off the ground means raising its potential energy by 15,000 Joules. For a DeLorean, this would require a constant downward force of about 2,800 pounds, exerted all the time.

A super-capacitor could recharge in seconds (limited by ion diffusion over very short distances), compared to an hour for a conventional lithium battery. Because there are no chemical reactions to take place in the capacitor, there is no degradation of the terminals, and the lifetime of such a charge-storage device would exceed the life of the car or truck that it powered.

[Marzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I was really torn about whether to give this book 2.5 stars or 3 stars. The episodic character of the explanations about scientific principles of things commonly found in seven different settings (Home, at the start of your day; your Drive to work; Doctor's visit; Airport and flying; Presentations, largely information science based; Hotel stay) was not completely satisfactory. Frankly, I have been trying to figure out who the ideal market is for this book. Those with no science background may find the explanations a challenge because the author assumes a fair amount of underlying knowledge, while those with a science background will find them simplistic and too brief. I settled on the idea that this might be a good dinner table book for discussing with teens. You can work through each scenario, reading a bit and discussing, for instance starting your day with timers, alarm clocks and looking at pendulums, moving in to toasters and electric toothbrushes. (Be prepared for more explanation of D.C. Vs AC current than you get here...)

I wish this book was just more. And at a relatively slender 256 pages, it could have been. The author mentions "pruning" in his acknowledgements but I guess I have some doubts about cutting the information to such a minimum and allowing it to lurch from one subject to another. And even some of the grouping is bizarre. Why is a fitness band in the hotel section? Rather mystifying.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Physics of Everyday Things: The Extraordinary Science Behind and Ordinary Day' by James Kakalios takes the reader through a day and explains how the things we interact with work.

The book follows a person as they wake up for the day. Some of the many objects that are discussed are alarm clocks and toll booths and medical x-rays. There are airport security devices and credit card readers and hotel room card readers. There are LCD projectors and toll booths.

Most of the items may not be things that the reader may not interact with daily, but the familiarity is there. These items have a common enough use that the reader may not really consider what the science is behind them. That's where this book shines. It does end up feeling like a bit much by the time the book ends, but I found it interesting enough, and I'm sure it will make me look at the every day items I use in a new light.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Crown Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a bit divided on how I feel about this book.
On the one hand, it has a very creative concept and it explains everyday things that any reader can relate to not fully understanding.
On the other hand, the language attempts to be approachable but it fails at making complicated concepts easy to digest. Someone who doesn't already understand (or is at least familiar) with most of the physics discussed in the book will most likely be turned off by the highly complex and specific terms that are needed to explain simple devices.
It's a perfect geeky book for those with tendencies towards physics and general knowledge, but I'd look for something a bit more simple if you're just a casual reader.

Mandatory note: Got my copy thru GoodReads First Reads.

[Ian Wells · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too simplistic

Hard to tell what audience this is for. The simplistic explanations are often misleading.
The writing style made reading painful as it was not fun or exciting, but quite dry. That juxtaposed with the simplistic explanations brought this to an early end.
There was not enough detail to keep me interested, and the style too dry to keep me amused.

[Sajith Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mankind extricated itself from the clutches of superstition and false beliefs over the ages, but has fallen slaves to technology. Our day – and night too – is made all the more easier and productive by numerous devices, some of whom are quite conspicuous like an air conditioner while others toil in the background like a pacemaker, yet are always there serving us. Over the years, our dependence on technology has become all the more indissoluble. In that sense, we have become slaves to our machines whose service has become essential to us. The Spielberg movie ‘Jurassic Park’ demonstrates man’s vulnerability to hazards in the absence of technology even for a short while (I am sure that there are more recent films exhibiting this theme, but my familiarity with movies in general is woefully inadequate!). A group of visitors ride through a park that houses dinosaurs recreated from ancient fossils and held under a tight leash by clever technical devices. The computerized security system of the park is taken down by a blackguard employee and the human masters suddenly find themselves at the mercy of the beasts that were safely behind cages till a few moments before. There are scenes in the movie in which the very life of people in the park is reliant on the proper functioning of machines and instruments. In the quarter century or so elapsed between the movie and the present day, we have become much more dependent on science and technology. This book is an attempt to explain the fundamental science that lies at the heart of everyday gadgets that we often take for granted. Narrating the life of a fictitious person from awaking in the morning to falling asleep at night, the author presents a lot of useful ideas and information to the readers. James Kakalios is the Taylor Distinguished Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota and the author of the much popular book, ‘The Physics of Superheroes’. He is a condensed matter experimentalist whose research concerns semiconductor materials and fluctuation phenomena in neurological systems.

The greatest boon of technology is that it allows its fruits to be enjoyed by users who don’t have any notion at all about how it works. The only constraint it imposes on consumers is to know how to make it work. Technology is only the application of science, but shields the users from its intricacies. So, you can enjoy the benefits of electricity without learning how electromagnetic effect works, or subject to an MRI scan without the least idea of the innards of nuclear structures and phenomena. This hands-free approach is followed in the narration in which the protagonist goes on performing the tasks in his routine daily life and the author stops to take note of the device and explain the principles of its working in a simple way. In the end, readers get acquainted with the science behind alarm clocks, toasters, automobile engines, X-ray and other medical equipments, flying machines, phones, display technologies and a whole host of similar instruments.

Many of the appliances being used and explained are still only a dream for the inhabitants of third-world countries. Electric toothbrushes, EZ-pass systems and proximity cards are still many years ahead, but this restriction is not imposed by the underlying technology and solely limited by the amount of dispensable income in one’s pocket. Kakalios has tried his best to give an easy-to-read narrative, but there are quite a few places at which the lay reader would find the going tough. The book is written for an American audience, which explains the profusion of the ‘Fahrenheit’ temperature scale. It assumes a high school-level familiarity with basics of science including an understanding of the atomic structure.

As can be expected, almost all of the devices and phenomena detailed in the book relates to electricity and electronics. All inventions in twentieth century physics fall under these heads, but computer is however, not included. It is curious to note that MRI scanner manufacturers purposefully omit the term ‘nuclear’ as part of marketing strategy because the public is overly concerned and troubled with things that has anything to do with ‘nuclear’. Kakalios also makes it a point to explain the principles of radiation and that all kinds of radiation are not harmful.

The book is highly recommended.

[ᛚᚨᚱᚲᚨ × ᚠᛖᚾᚱᛁᚱ (Semi hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Kakalios, usando la sua conoscenza e il supporto del libro How Everything Works: Making Physics Out of the Ordinary di Louis Bloomfield e dei siti HowStuffWorks e ExplainThatStuff , combina scienza e narrativa in un libro parecchio interessante.
Usando un semplice pretesto (la descrizione di una giornata qualsiasi), James ci invita a fare attenzione a come le nostre più piccole azioni e "lussi", cose che noi diamo per scontato o a cui non badiamo più, sono resi possibili grazie al progresso della tecnologia, alle leggi della fisica e della chimica... non sono frutto di una stregoneria o l'opera buona di una creaturina magica nascosta chissà dove.
Lo stile è molto chiaro ed accessibile, gli oggetti o i fenomeni che vengono spiegati sono sempre interessanti... devo dire che nei giorni in cui lo stavo leggendo ho prestato più attenzione a quello che facevo, alle forze che entravano in gioco per farmi raggiungere il più piccolo scopo da me desiderato. È un libro che sicuramente accende la curiosità.
Sperando di non smontare ogni singola cosa per vedere com'è fatta (non che ci sia qualcosa di male, ma nel mio caso lascerei una scia di distruzione e mi ritroverei con le stesse domande con cui ero partita), metto in lista l'altro suo famosissimo libro: La fisica dei supereroi .

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my poolside read this month, I read The Physics of Everyday Things by James Kakalios. It is a Nonfiction book with 206 pages about how everyday devices function. I enjoyed this book a lot and learned a good deal of new information from it. For example, in one section of the book, Kakalios explains how lasers work in great detail, mentioning things such as where the laser’s power comes from and how all of the light emitted from the laser is in phase and uniform.. It was very interesting to see how they function, why they work, and why the uses of lasers differ between the types and the wavelengths being used. I especially loved learning the physics of how atoms interact with each other and what laws govern them, as there are a lot of weird phenomena at that scale. I love discovering how things work, so this book was very engaging for me and I would rate it 4.1 out of 5 stars. My only complaint was that some areas were difficult to follow, but that may be because I don’t yet know a lot of physics. I would only recommend this book to people who are interested in physics and how daily objects operate, but overall it was a great read.

[Noloter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non spiacevole ma non riesce ad essere interessante e accattivante quanto La fisica dei supereroi (dello stesso autore), qui l'approccio si fa più schematico e sequenziale: paragrafetto simil-narrativo di introduzione - entra in scena l'oggetto di cui parlare - si parte con lo spiegone, forse un po' troppo sbrigativo e approssimativo sul tipo della rubrica giornalistica (La fisica dei supereroi è più approfondito) data l'eccessiva brevità.
A parte, poi, che radiografie, tac, metaldetector, e voli in aereo non corrispondono esattamente alle "cose di ogni giorno" per l'essere umano medio (nemmeno in Europa occidentale, per gli USA non so ma sospetto sia lo stesso uscendo da micromondo alla NY) ma capisco che l'intenzione sia quella di trattare oggetti e situazioni in cui sia possibile imbattersi in qualsiasi momento senza entrare in laboratori o in stabilimenti industriali. Tuttavia, senza avere la presunzione di contestare il prof. Kakalios, con un titolo del genere mi sarei aspettato di più una trattazione sui princìpi di funzionamento, che so, di una macchina del caffè (non parlo della sconosciuta moka italiana, ché anche lei ha la sua bella fisica dietro, ma quella americana), di uno spazzolino elettrico, di una lampadina (tra le obsolete a incandescenza e alogene ce n'è da dire), della radio, del climatizzatore, delle lenti, dello scaldabagno, della lavatrice, degli impianti idrici che portano l'acqua nelle abitazioni, degli pneumatici delle autovetture, dei sistemi di insonorizzazione...giusto per menzionare i primi che mi vengono in mente. Insomma, una gamma di svariati oggetti in grado di fornire diversi spunti per trattare i più disparati argomenti della Fisica (meccanica, termodinamica, elettromagnetismo, fisica quantistica, ecc). In ogni caso, più che di Fisica qui si parla di Tecnica (si spiega come funziona il dispositivo ma quasi mai le leggi fisiche che lo permettono) due cose diverse; l'approccio e prevalentemente dal punto di vista tecnologico.
Tra l'altro, probabilmente per ragioni professionali, l'autore si concentra eccessivamente sui dispositivi elettronici (che riguardano solo una parte della fisica) digitali, soffermandocisi più e più volte, ed è pur vero che la nostra vita è, nel bene e nel male, dominata da oggetti di questo tipo ma in un testo divulgativo tutto ciò risulta inutilmente ripetitivo e monotono, specialmente per il livello di dettaglio veramente scarso in cui si resta.

[Keziah Jensen-Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway, several months ago, and finally got around to reading it. Overall, this was an enjoyable book and very informative.

Less Positive Things:
Requires a basic knowledge of science, particularly electricity and magnetism. Could have used more pictures and diagrams to help clarify explanations. There were a few typos and other grammatical errors, but that was to be expected from an uncorrected proof, as this was an advance copy.

Positive Things:
Modern technology is freakin' awesome! It does an excellent job with explanations of even complicated topics. The footnotes and asides are hilarious. The interludes introducing each new machine or topic provide a nice break from the science and make the book much more relatable.

Definitely worth reading, and if I didn't already own a copy, I would probably buy one.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

I really want to come back to this one! I've enjoyed the facts I have picked up from it so far, it's just not working out great right now because, (A), I made the mistake of trying to listen to this on audio, and I just can't absorb all the details that way, and (B), I've been low brain power lately because of a combination of health issues (brain fog) and real life distractions. So it seems better to come back to this one in a visual format when I can enjoy and absorb it properly.

[Kallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very surface level physics of everything you might encounter in a day from waking up at home, going to the doctor, taking a plane and checking into a hotel. It's a good introduction to where innovation has taken place that requires an understanding of physics, but you're not going to get that understanding of physics here.

[Cait · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love fun science books.

[Diana Eberhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I didn’t understand much of it, but I think I learned a little something.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic but I didn't find it a compelling read.

[Elisa Sacchetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! I learned so much about how there is physics in almost everything we do!

[norah · Rating 1 out of 5]

summer reading 🤢

[Joshua Pitre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will be honest. Some things flew way beyond my reach, but it was still a very fascinating read.