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In Praise of Simple Physics: The Science and Mathematics behind Everyday Questions
Fun puzzles that use physics to explore the wonders of everyday life
Physics can explain many of the things that we commonly encounter. It can tell us why the night is dark, what causes the tides, and even how best to catch a baseball. With In Praise of Simple Physics, popular math and science writer Paul Nahin presents a plethora of situations that explore the science and math behind the wonders of everyday life. Roaming through a diverse range of puzzles, he illustrates how physics shows us ways to wring more energy from renewable sources, to measure the gravity in our car garages, to figure out which of three light switches in the basement controls the light bulb in the attic, and much, much more.
How fast can you travel from London to Paris? How do scientists calculate the energy of an atomic bomb explosion? How do you kick a football so it stays in the air and goes a long way downfield? Nahin begins with simpler problems and progresses to more challenging questions, and his entertaining, accessible, and scientifically and mathematically informed explanations are all punctuated by his trademark humor. Readers are presumed to have some background in beginning differential and integral calculus. Whether you simply have a personal interest in physics' influence in the world or you're an engineering and science student who wants to gain more physics know-how, this book has an intriguing scenario for you.
In Praise of Simple Physics proves that if we look carefully at the world around us, physics has answers for the most astonishing day-to-day occurrences.
263 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 24, 2016
About the author
Paul J. Nahin
46 books115 followersPaul J. Nahin is professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire and the author of many best-selling popular math books, including The Logician and the Engineer and Will You Be Alive 10 Years from Now? (both Princeton).
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 30, 2017
I'm a mathematician so I'm not afraid of equations. (Do not ask me about inequalities...). But this book has a LOT of equations and some of them are pretty horrible. Also, I do not subscribe to Paul Nahin's dictum that it is always easier to write and solve the equations than to think things through in general terms. At the bottom of page 71 he challenges the reader to say, by reason alone, which bulbs will get brighter and which will get dimmer when the switch is closed. Well, I did exactly that. And will the lake rise or fall when Bob is thrown out of the boat wearing cement shoes? Once again, I answered correctly without doing any calculations. It makes me wish for a companion volume "How to solve physical problems without algebra". Anyway, this book is clearly "extra for experts" and it would take a determined reader indeed to follow all the algebra and calculus on every page. If this book shows the power of equations (and it does), it also shows the price we must pay for that power.
October 18, 2019
The intended audience is a physics undergraduate with all his homework done. The complete calculus sequence is a prereq to reading this.
August 9, 2016
Using the term “simple” in the title is very much a matter of perspective. While the topics will be of interest to the general reader, there is no dodging of the mathematics used to explain them. Each topic is introduced and then the equations are listed and analyzed until the solution is achieved. At times, the derivation takes up sufficient space. For example, in the chapter “How to Catch a Baseball (Or Not),” the topic is how a fielder will turn their back on a fly ball, run to the proper location and then turn around and catch it. The derivation of the solution is a series of equation equalities that runs for over three-quarters of a page.
While there is a bit of history and some background, the general tactic is to state the problem and then go right to the equations used to find the solution. Some of the topics are:
*) How to Measure Depth With a Stopwatch – dropping a rock in a hole and determining the depth by the elapsed time before hearing it reach the bottom.
*) Vectors and Bad Hair Days – selecting the proper angle to orient to the wind to avoid having your hair messed up.
*) Energy From Moving Air – a derivation of how much energy can be extracted from wind.
*) The Traffic Light Dilemma ��� trying to determine the decision procedure as to whether to speed up or stop when a traffic light turns yellow.
*) How Some Things Float (or Don’t) – an analysis of the problem as to whether the water level in a pond goes up or down if you throw something out of a boat.
The situations and their solutions are interesting independent of the mathematics. If the math were to be extracted and the scenarios with succinct solutions were to be in a much shorter book, people that do not understand the math would find that book to be well worth reading.
Instructors of physics or mathematics that are looking for problems to challenge and interest their students will find some valuable material in this book. All of the problems are easy to understand and the math is challenging. While a few of the problems can be solved using only algebra, more advanced mathematics such as trigonometry and calculus are needed to work through most of them.
This book was made available for free for review purposes.
While there is a bit of history and some background, the general tactic is to state the problem and then go right to the equations used to find the solution. Some of the topics are:
*) How to Measure Depth With a Stopwatch – dropping a rock in a hole and determining the depth by the elapsed time before hearing it reach the bottom.
*) Vectors and Bad Hair Days – selecting the proper angle to orient to the wind to avoid having your hair messed up.
*) Energy From Moving Air – a derivation of how much energy can be extracted from wind.
*) The Traffic Light Dilemma ��� trying to determine the decision procedure as to whether to speed up or stop when a traffic light turns yellow.
*) How Some Things Float (or Don’t) – an analysis of the problem as to whether the water level in a pond goes up or down if you throw something out of a boat.
The situations and their solutions are interesting independent of the mathematics. If the math were to be extracted and the scenarios with succinct solutions were to be in a much shorter book, people that do not understand the math would find that book to be well worth reading.
Instructors of physics or mathematics that are looking for problems to challenge and interest their students will find some valuable material in this book. All of the problems are easy to understand and the math is challenging. While a few of the problems can be solved using only algebra, more advanced mathematics such as trigonometry and calculus are needed to work through most of them.
This book was made available for free for review purposes.
November 1, 2021
Fascinating and wonderful for any physics or math nerd. It was so addictive that I almost missed my metro stop a couple times. And it taught me just how much math I have forgotten since college....
February 27, 2019
I have a soft spot for books that explain everyday phenomena. It's what I find most fascinating about the use of math and physics. We can explain so much with simple ideas. Nahin's book is a fun read that goes through a bunch of different physical situations, not so far removed from real life, and explains how we can understand the situation using math and physics. Nahin goes through all of the steps, so that even a beginner can see the logic of how to get through a derivation. For more advanced readers, you can simply skip to end results, but I always like it when authors show their work.
This only requires freshman calculus to understand fully (you can get by with high school algebra and trigonometry), and Nahin goes over his steps enough that I don't think this would be too large of a step for a motivated high school student.
The examples are fun, and Nahin has a sense of humor and style that I enjoy. He gives the examples life rather than just cut-and-dry explanations. He studies what to do during a yellow light, how tides work on the Earth, how to get wind to feel like it is going perpendicular to your velocity, satellites, and even an analysis of a hyperloop like object. There's much more, but that should give you a taste of the breadth.
If you enjoy analyzing simple physics problems, or even just thinking about them, this book offers good explanations backed up by the math. If you are afraid of math, then this is not for you.
This only requires freshman calculus to understand fully (you can get by with high school algebra and trigonometry), and Nahin goes over his steps enough that I don't think this would be too large of a step for a motivated high school student.
The examples are fun, and Nahin has a sense of humor and style that I enjoy. He gives the examples life rather than just cut-and-dry explanations. He studies what to do during a yellow light, how tides work on the Earth, how to get wind to feel like it is going perpendicular to your velocity, satellites, and even an analysis of a hyperloop like object. There's much more, but that should give you a taste of the breadth.
If you enjoy analyzing simple physics problems, or even just thinking about them, this book offers good explanations backed up by the math. If you are afraid of math, then this is not for you.
May 25, 2018
Yet another fabulous mathematical physics collection from the, always inspiring, Paul Nahin. Nahin's books are never easy and don't let you off lightly with hand-waving vagaries about physical phenomena, you're expected to get pencil and paper out and labour through the equations; the downside is you have to have the background (A-level maths/further maths will normally suffice), the upside is, along with very clear examination of what the maths is telling you, you gain a very much clearer insight into the physical phenomenon at hand.
This collection presents numerous physics topics from the ever popular how far can an offset stack of books stretch problem (partly depicted on the cover), through gangsters sending their concrete-booted enemies to the bottom of the lake, to why the night sky is dark. Some of the problems are very short, a couple of pages with not too complicated maths, whilst others are very involved including many lines of algebra, trigonometry and calculus.
Even if you haven't got the mathematical background just yet, for example a GCSE/pre-A level maths/science student, you should give this a go, it will inspire your studies and put you quite a bit ahead of the game compared to many of your fellow students.
This collection presents numerous physics topics from the ever popular how far can an offset stack of books stretch problem (partly depicted on the cover), through gangsters sending their concrete-booted enemies to the bottom of the lake, to why the night sky is dark. Some of the problems are very short, a couple of pages with not too complicated maths, whilst others are very involved including many lines of algebra, trigonometry and calculus.
Even if you haven't got the mathematical background just yet, for example a GCSE/pre-A level maths/science student, you should give this a go, it will inspire your studies and put you quite a bit ahead of the game compared to many of your fellow students.
March 23, 2023
Paul J. Nahin uses simple physics and mathematics to explore solutions to different problems. For example, there is a limit to how much energy you can extract from the wind. Betz's Law dictates this efficiency, but how do you figure it out?
Other physics problems covered in this book concern Olber's Paradox, Communications Satellites, stacking books, and more. Nahin subjects each to mathematical analysis.
Nahin ends the book with a discussion on calculating g, the Gravitational Constant.
The book is very informative. I tore through it because it was so interesting. It's too bad my vocabulary cannot match up. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
Other physics problems covered in this book concern Olber's Paradox, Communications Satellites, stacking books, and more. Nahin subjects each to mathematical analysis.
Nahin ends the book with a discussion on calculating g, the Gravitational Constant.
The book is very informative. I tore through it because it was so interesting. It's too bad my vocabulary cannot match up. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
May 25, 2021
I started this book, but didn't get very far. The physics may be simple, but the math is not. The book expects you to do the math to go with the physics (or at least follow it), and that requires knowing calculus. I took calculus, but that was 34 years and 2/3 of my life ago, and I could not follow the math. Perhaps it's a good book for someone willing and able to follow the not-at-all-simple math. For the rest of us, don't be mislead by the title.
May 27, 2022
Another lovely book by Paul Nahin on simple but extremely interesting problems of the classical mechanics. Unlike the author’s similar ‘Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt’ book, the math here is very easy to follow for any high schooler taken AP Algebra or Physics classes.
February 5, 2018
Book is OK-(ish?) but it obviously had a surprisingly bad proof-reading at Princeton Press (French scientist Leibnitz, explanations about arccos on negative values in "Tarzan Swing" etc.) , no less.
February 26, 2021
Despite the author's constant affirmations - few people with high school math will be able to follow this
Read
February 15, 2023my calculus is too rusty to really enjoy this book. I'm sure it's great, but it's not for me.
March 8, 2024
طبعا مو هذا اللي قريته ما ادري ليه لما سويت scan للكتاب الحالي طلع لي هذا ، عموما قرأت كتاب للموت يشبهني للكاتبه رهف مساوى ، المفردات وسياقه الكلام حسستني ان الكاتبه مراهقه لكن ليس سيئ
August 24, 2021
In this book, Nahin illustrates how basic concepts from physics can be used to understand everyday phenomena. For example, Nahin explains some topics that are commonly found in the popular science literature, such as why the night sky is dark and why the tides occur. He also delves into topics that are touched upon in high school physics, such as using kinematics to solve questions regarding objects moving in the air; however, Nahin does go further by applying kinematics to more advanced problems like visual cues for catching a baseball or how to best swing from vines like Tarzan/Indiana Jones. But many of the problems that Nahin tackles are genuinely unique and beautiful. My favorite was his chapter on the physics of stacking books, in which he shows that an infinite number of books can be stacked at the edge of a table and shifted by ever-decreasing amounts off the table without the stack ever collapsing! Some other notable ones are how to measure gravity with simple at-home experiments and a thought experiment on rapid travel in a circular transit tube around the Earth.
Readers must have a basic understanding of calculus - how to take derivatives and how to evaluate easy integrals. Some familiarity with high school physics will also help in understanding the material, but Nahin explains all the physics beautifully so that someone with no previous exposure can follow along. This book is mostly full of equations with their explanations, so for someone who wants to learn the more mathematical underpinnings of basic everyday phenomena, this is a great resource. Nevertheless, every chapter forms almost a coherent narrative so that in the end, although you might not remember the exact equations, you will definitely have a better intuition for modeling everyday phenomena!
Readers must have a basic understanding of calculus - how to take derivatives and how to evaluate easy integrals. Some familiarity with high school physics will also help in understanding the material, but Nahin explains all the physics beautifully so that someone with no previous exposure can follow along. This book is mostly full of equations with their explanations, so for someone who wants to learn the more mathematical underpinnings of basic everyday phenomena, this is a great resource. Nevertheless, every chapter forms almost a coherent narrative so that in the end, although you might not remember the exact equations, you will definitely have a better intuition for modeling everyday phenomena!
Want to read
June 27, 2016This book wasn't what I expected so I quit reading after Chapter 1. It will likely appeal to those who enjoy math problems more than I do.
September 16, 2016
Simply the best. Nahin knocks it out of the park yet again with this book. Highly recommended.
October 25, 2016
profound, lovely, and arduous puzzles.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews