How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life - Softcover

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How Things Work is written for anyone who has ever wondered how a microwave oven cooks food, who has tried to fix a leaking water faucet, or who has hesitated to pay more for a halogen lamp. As it examines familiar objects – bathroom scales, televisions, photocopiers, airplane engines, and ocean waves – How Things Work presents the basic principles of physics in contexts that make them understandable and relevant. In doing so, it demonstrates the power of physics to explain and predict a multitude of phenomena with just a few basic principles and shows how these beautiful principles are woven through the fabric of everyday life. A skillful pitcher uses the air to make a baseball curve in flight on its way to the batter. The way in which the ball curves depends its spin. The word flight is especially appropriate here because a spinning ball interacts with the air in much the same way that an airplane does (Section 4.3). The violin’s bridge does more than simply support its string. It also rocks back and forth as the strings vibrate, conveying their motions to the violin’s sound board. Most of the sound we hear as a violinist draws a bow across the strings is produced by the moving sound board (Section 9.2). For an object that touches the ground at only two points, a moving bicycle is remarkably stable. It remains upright because its front wheel automatically steers it under the rider’s weight as the two travel forward. This stabilizing effect even makes it possible to ride a bicycle without hands (Section 5.2).