How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life - Softcover

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Lou Bloomfield is a highly dedicated teacher and one of the most popular professors at University of Virginia, and was the recipient of the 1998 State of Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. Lou has given talks all over the country on teaching physics through everyday objects. He has extreme attention to detail and knowledge of technical physics. He is very tech savvy and has been able to provide many of the photos and illustrations for the text himself.

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Though his moves appear magical, this skateboarder is performing his stunts entirely within the laws of physics. More importantly, he is making those laws real and relevant. This book is all about putting the laws of physics in context. By finding physics in the objects of everyday experience, How Things Work transforms the field from a remote and abstract academic discipline into the essential basis for understanding our world and everything in it.

Our skateboarder illustrates the same physics we'll explore in the first two chapters of this book. Like someone who is skating (Section 1.1), he spends much of his time coasting forward because of his own inertia. But his recent trip up a ramp (Section 1.3) has lifted him high above the ground so that he is subject only to his weight-the downward pull of gravity-and travels in the arc of a falling ball (Section 1.2).

Of course, since both he and the board rotate like seesaws (Section 2.1) as they fall, landing safely is more than half the challenge. His concentration is a sure sign that he intends to ride the skateboard back down the slope on its friction-reducing wheels (Section 2.2) in another second or two. However, if he makes a mistake and collides with something, as he would in a bumper car(Section 2.3), it's Reassuring to note that he's warning a helmet.

If this all sounds rather ordinary, it's because physics is ordinary. It's everywhere you look. But understanding physics well will require some guidance and thought, so it's time to venture inside this book.