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Hidden Wonders: The Subtle Dialogue Between Physics and Elegance
The hidden elegance in everyday objects and physical mechanisms, from crumpled paper to sandcastles.
Hidden Wonders focuses on the objects that populate our everyday life--crumpled paper, woven fabric, a sand pile--but looks at them with a physicist's eye, revealing a hidden elegance in mundane physical mechanisms. In six chapters--Builders, Creating Shapes, Building with Threads, From Sand to Glass, Matter in Motion, and Fractures--the authors present brief stories, set in locales ranging from the Eiffel Tower to a sandcastle, that illustrate the little wonders hidden in the ordinary. A simple experiment that readers can perform at home concludes each story. More than 200 illustrations bring the stories to life.
Hidden Wonders focuses on the objects that populate our everyday life--crumpled paper, woven fabric, a sand pile--but looks at them with a physicist's eye, revealing a hidden elegance in mundane physical mechanisms. In six chapters--Builders, Creating Shapes, Building with Threads, From Sand to Glass, Matter in Motion, and Fractures--the authors present brief stories, set in locales ranging from the Eiffel Tower to a sandcastle, that illustrate the little wonders hidden in the ordinary. A simple experiment that readers can perform at home concludes each story. More than 200 illustrations bring the stories to life.
324 pages, Paperback
Published February 23, 2021
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168 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 16, 2020
Very good. This covers large and tiny objects, and everything in between. It includes excellent photography and graphics along with interesting and clear info to explain the history and concepts used to create the man-made and natural objects. Quite interesting and friendly to non-scientific minded. Recommended.
I really appreciate the ARC for review!!
I really appreciate the ARC for review!!
October 4, 2025
I went into this book with few expectations. I knew there would be talk of physics (hence the subtitle), but it was still not at all what I was expecting (in a good way).
It started as one would expect a book about physics would start: explaining the architecture of famous French monuments (the authors are from France, and the book was originally written in French). And yeah, learning about how the Eiffel Tower and Azay-le-Rideau were interesting, but it was right around the end of the first part, Chapter 5, that the book really became eye opening.
Because that was the chapter on surface tension, where the book compared soap film to stretched canvas to Munich's Olympic Stadium and how they all rely on the same basic principles to work. From there were entire chapters on bubbles and foam, necklaces, shells, even comparing how sandcastles don't crumble (and that it's the same reason your hair sticks to itself when it's wet, it's called capillary force).
Of course there had to be a chapter on fractals, but I enjoy fractals enough and understand their relationship to math and physics that I don't even mind.
I also enjoyed that each chapter ended with an experiment that went with the concepts explained in the book.
It started as one would expect a book about physics would start: explaining the architecture of famous French monuments (the authors are from France, and the book was originally written in French). And yeah, learning about how the Eiffel Tower and Azay-le-Rideau were interesting, but it was right around the end of the first part, Chapter 5, that the book really became eye opening.
Because that was the chapter on surface tension, where the book compared soap film to stretched canvas to Munich's Olympic Stadium and how they all rely on the same basic principles to work. From there were entire chapters on bubbles and foam, necklaces, shells, even comparing how sandcastles don't crumble (and that it's the same reason your hair sticks to itself when it's wet, it's called capillary force).
Of course there had to be a chapter on fractals, but I enjoy fractals enough and understand their relationship to math and physics that I don't even mind.
I also enjoyed that each chapter ended with an experiment that went with the concepts explained in the book.
February 19, 2021
An absolutely delightful work, deserving of a wide and diverse readership. Working scientists will likely bemoan the lack of quantitative treatment, but only the profoundly ungracious will fail to appreciate the intended audience and I suspect most scientists will encounter one or more hidden wonders that their curiosity had yet to touch upon. The primary audience, though, will surely be the literate, thinking public, which will find most of the material novel and the explanations satisfying. The greatest value of the work, though, may come from its use by school teachers and/or engaged parents, for whom the experiments (requiring only household items) might well spawn new scientists and engineers.
August 23, 2025
Commentaires similaires à ceux laissés pour "L'impermanence du monde. La physique de l'éphémère".
Le livre est une réussite graphique et les expériences proposées sont, pour la plupart, facilement accessibles et compréhensibles. Le texte contient parfois du vocabulaire assez technique ou fait référence à de la culture générale, qui sont d'un plus haut niveau que les expériences proposées (public lycéen pour le texte et plutôt collégien pour les expériences je dirai).
Le livre est une réussite graphique et les expériences proposées sont, pour la plupart, facilement accessibles et compréhensibles. Le texte contient parfois du vocabulaire assez technique ou fait référence à de la culture générale, qui sont d'un plus haut niveau que les expériences proposées (public lycéen pour le texte et plutôt collégien pour les expériences je dirai).
January 14, 2025
Un beau livre, mais qui reste pas mal en surface des phénomènes. Nous ne sommes pas au niveau scientifique d'un article de Pour la science.
January 24, 2021
From stone arches and wood beams with weight-bearing virtues to overturned hull homes near Calais to adding strength to a plain sheet of paper (my young nephews happily did this experiment!) to the curvatures of soap film to tension in bubbles (and breaking it)...this breathtaking and supremely fascinating book turns the ordinary into extraordinary. These are phenomena one may not think about but you will definitely see things differently after reading this book (take a close, close look at spider webs and bird nests, try the simple directory experiment). Most of these ideas from nature are used in architecture and structure and incorporated into art (pine cones)
Some of my favourite eye-opening photographs include the boundary bubbles, mother-of-pearl, grains of sand, kaolinite platelets, Venus flower skeleton, fern sporangium and dried corn flour. I had not heard of catenaries but now will remember them...and will hopefully use the word to impress! As a traveler who lives part time in Europe stone arches and vaults have always fascinated me structurally and photographically. I do embroidery so was happy to see a discussion on thread and folds of fabric.
This utterly enthralling book exceeds my expectations. No exaggerating...after reading it I feel smarter as it is so informative. The experiments would be (are - I've done a few!) great for adults and kids. There are more topics in here than you would expect. Not only this but the photography is marvelous! Anyone scientifically minded or those who simply wish to learn more about our amazing nature really should read this. Actually, it's more than reading. It's mind bending.
My sincere thank you to MIT Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this spellbinding book in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.
Some of my favourite eye-opening photographs include the boundary bubbles, mother-of-pearl, grains of sand, kaolinite platelets, Venus flower skeleton, fern sporangium and dried corn flour. I had not heard of catenaries but now will remember them...and will hopefully use the word to impress! As a traveler who lives part time in Europe stone arches and vaults have always fascinated me structurally and photographically. I do embroidery so was happy to see a discussion on thread and folds of fabric.
This utterly enthralling book exceeds my expectations. No exaggerating...after reading it I feel smarter as it is so informative. The experiments would be (are - I've done a few!) great for adults and kids. There are more topics in here than you would expect. Not only this but the photography is marvelous! Anyone scientifically minded or those who simply wish to learn more about our amazing nature really should read this. Actually, it's more than reading. It's mind bending.
My sincere thank you to MIT Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this spellbinding book in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.
August 26, 2022
On a hot summer day, I am reading this delightful book with breeze from a low-noise fan and sound of flowing water from my table fountain.
Inspired by this book (its very experimental approach) - for the first time, I thought of putting a round disc of olive-scented vegan soap into my fountain base. As time goes by, the flowing water starts to get turbid. I am hoping I will soon be able to observe the minimum surface of a given contour (Lagrange) that mentioned in the book.
The first chapter of the book touches the essence of architecture: forms, forces and function, and perhaps resonate with one of the architectural school "Less is More" (Mies van de Rohe). The notion of elegance in the eyes of physicists is represented by: harmony, delicacy and simplicity.
Bike wheels is an example used to describe tension and comprehension, which serves a core for your imagination to diverge (3 spoke, 4 spoke, 5 spoke wheels VS traditional thin spoke and tensile force to rim)
Tensegrity in other words is a balance of internal constrains which could be observed in the plants and animal world. In vertebrates, the disjointed elements and bones are made possible thanks to a network of tendons.
Inspired by this book (its very experimental approach) - for the first time, I thought of putting a round disc of olive-scented vegan soap into my fountain base. As time goes by, the flowing water starts to get turbid. I am hoping I will soon be able to observe the minimum surface of a given contour (Lagrange) that mentioned in the book.
The first chapter of the book touches the essence of architecture: forms, forces and function, and perhaps resonate with one of the architectural school "Less is More" (Mies van de Rohe). The notion of elegance in the eyes of physicists is represented by: harmony, delicacy and simplicity.
Bike wheels is an example used to describe tension and comprehension, which serves a core for your imagination to diverge (3 spoke, 4 spoke, 5 spoke wheels VS traditional thin spoke and tensile force to rim)
Tensegrity in other words is a balance of internal constrains which could be observed in the plants and animal world. In vertebrates, the disjointed elements and bones are made possible thanks to a network of tendons.
March 3, 2021
I would like to thank the publisher and the authors for providing a digital advanced review copy of this book.
"Hidden Wonders" is an excellent title for this book. The authors provide fascinating details about the physics, math, and science behind the everyday miracles that we tend to take for granted. For example, although it is commonly known that spider silk is one of the strongest materials by weight, I never knew that spider silk has built in nodules that act like shock absorbers to increase the length of the thread when it is under stress. I also did not realize that increasing the flexibility of the poles used by Olympic pole vaulters contributed to adding over a meter to the height of modern records compared to the 1800's. I am sure that there are anecdotes and tidbits that will appeal to renaissance women and men throughout the world. The illustrations absolutely help the descriptions come alive.
Although this is not a travel book, the decidedly French-centric history and information in this book have me drooling to plan another trip to France (and neighboring countries) after we crawl out from under the Covid pandemic to a world where international travel is safe and commonplace again.
Because I really did like this book, I have two suggestions. (1) Since on page 150 the authors brought up the topic of how many times it is possible to fold a piece of paper, and since the English translation of this book is being published by MIT Press, it seems only fair that they describe how students were able to use 54,000 feet of toilet paper in MIT's "Infinite Corridor" to perform an amazing 13 folds back in 2011. And (2) since the book already has an excellent glossary, I would propose including the following words that sent me to my dictionary: biface, achene, samara, and craquelure. (Wow! It makes me feel better to see that the spell checker I am using at the moment is also unfamiliar with three of these words!)
Again, many thanks to the authors, translator, and publisher for bringing these "Hidden Wonders" to the world.
"Hidden Wonders" is an excellent title for this book. The authors provide fascinating details about the physics, math, and science behind the everyday miracles that we tend to take for granted. For example, although it is commonly known that spider silk is one of the strongest materials by weight, I never knew that spider silk has built in nodules that act like shock absorbers to increase the length of the thread when it is under stress. I also did not realize that increasing the flexibility of the poles used by Olympic pole vaulters contributed to adding over a meter to the height of modern records compared to the 1800's. I am sure that there are anecdotes and tidbits that will appeal to renaissance women and men throughout the world. The illustrations absolutely help the descriptions come alive.
Although this is not a travel book, the decidedly French-centric history and information in this book have me drooling to plan another trip to France (and neighboring countries) after we crawl out from under the Covid pandemic to a world where international travel is safe and commonplace again.
Because I really did like this book, I have two suggestions. (1) Since on page 150 the authors brought up the topic of how many times it is possible to fold a piece of paper, and since the English translation of this book is being published by MIT Press, it seems only fair that they describe how students were able to use 54,000 feet of toilet paper in MIT's "Infinite Corridor" to perform an amazing 13 folds back in 2011. And (2) since the book already has an excellent glossary, I would propose including the following words that sent me to my dictionary: biface, achene, samara, and craquelure. (Wow! It makes me feel better to see that the spell checker I am using at the moment is also unfamiliar with three of these words!)
Again, many thanks to the authors, translator, and publisher for bringing these "Hidden Wonders" to the world.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews