Instant Egghead Guide: Physics: Physics

by Brian Clegg, Scientific American

Scientific American 's daily Sixty-Second Science podcast was such an unexpected success, with millions of downloads, that a spin-off site was created around the concept of bite-sized science. This new series of books will tackle the biggest topics in science by breaking them up into quick and easy two- to four-page spreads. Topics in each book will take the light and accessible tone of the 60-Second Science podcasts and blog. INSTANT EGGHEAD PHYSICS will explore quantum physics, relativity, and light. It will break down complex ideas and explore why Einstein made some big blunders, how the ipod came to be, and what it would take to make teleportation possible.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Physics

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be fair, I haven't "read" this yet. I read 5 pages this morning for the copy I got from the library and I'm buying it, as I figure just from the first 5 pages the rest of it will be highly entertaining and informative not only for myself but for my oldest.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting -- very cute little synopsis of physics theories for the uninitiated (me). Reading it certainly reinforced the correctness of my decision not to take physics in school. While reading this book all I could imagine was that I was Penny from The Big Bang, getting a lesson from Dr. Sheldon Cooper!

Some parts were interesting to me, some were not. But it's not the author's fault, just a result of my total disinterest with the subject matter. So I guess that's the end of my physics education, and I fine with that!