The Flying Circus of Physics 2nd Edition by Jearl Walker (PDF)

Description

Hurry! Hurry! Come one, come all. Meet a man who can pull two railroad passenger cars with his teeth and a real-life human cannon ball. Come face to face with a dead rattlesnake that still bites. And unlock the secrets of a magician’s bodiless head. Welcome to this updated edition of The Flying Circus of Physics, where death-defying stunts, high-flying acrobatics, strange curiosities, and mind-bending illusions bring to life the fascinating feats of physics in the world around us. In 1977, Wiley published the first edition of Jearl Walker’s The Flying Circus of Physics, which has sold over 100,000 copies and become a cult classic in the physics community. The Flying Circus is a compendium of interesting real world phenomena that can be explained using basic laws of physics. This new edition represents a thorough updating and modernization of the book. The new edition gives us the opportunity to highlight Jearl’s creativity, his communication skills, and his ability to make physics interesting. Jearl Walker received his B.S. in physics from MIT in 1967 and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland in 1973. His popular book, The Flying Circus of Physics, has been translated into at least 10 languages and is still being sold worldwide. For 16 years he toured his fun-filled Flying Circus lecture throughout the U.S. and Canada, introducing countless teachers to such physics phenomena as molecular adhesion by hanging spoons from his face and Leidenfrost’s phenomenon by dipping his wet hand in molten lead without getting hurt.These lectures led to his national PBS television show, Kinetic Karnival, which ran for several years and won him a local Emmy Award. During his 13 years as a columnist with Scientific American magazine, Dr. Walker wrote 152 articles for “The Amateur Scientist” section, which were translated into at least 9 languages worldwide. His topics ranged from the physics of judo to the physics of bearnaise sauce and lemon meringue pie. In 1990, he took over the textbook Fundamentals of Physics from David Halliday and Robert Resnick and has now published the seventh edition of the book. He has appeared countless times on television and radio and in newspapers and magazines.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From the Inside Flap Witness astounding feats of physicsHurry! Hurry! Come one, come all. Meet a man who can pull two railroad passenger cars with his teeth and a real-life human cannon ball. Come face to face with a dead rattlesnake that still bites. And unlock the secrets to the magician’s bodiless head.Welcome to Jearl Walker’s Flying Circus of Physics, 2nd Edition, where death-defying stunts, high-flying acrobatics, strange curiosities, and mind-bending illusions are all part of everyday life. You don’t need a ticket; you only need to look to the world around you to uncover these fascinating feats of physics.Completely updated and expanded, this Second Edition of Jearl Walker’s best-selling book features more than 700 thoroughly intriguing questions about relevant, fun, and completely real physical phenomena. Detailed explanations and references to outside sources guide your way through the problems.You’ll discover answers to such questions as:Can you start a fire with ice?Why does the sky turn green just before a tornado?Why do wintergreen LifeSavers glow in the dark when you bite them?If you are falling in an elevator, should you try to jump up at the last second or lay flat against the floor?How do electric eels produce their electric field?Why is wet sand darker than dry sand?What causes an oasis mirage?Why do stars twinkle?Could you drive a car on a ceiling? From the Back Cover Witness astounding feats of physicsHurry! Hurry! Come one, come all. Meet a man who can pull two railroad passenger cars with his teeth and a real-life human cannon ball. Come face to face with a dead rattlesnake that still bites. And unlock the secrets to the magician’s bodiless head.Welcome to Jearl Walker’s Flying Circus of Physics, 2nd Edition, where death-defying stunts, high-flying acrobatics, strange curiosities, and mind-bending illusions are all part of everyday life. You don’t need a ticket; you only need to look to the world around you to uncover these fascinating feats of physics.Completely updated and expanded, this Second Edition of Jearl Walker’s best-selling book features more than 700 thoroughly intriguing questions about relevant, fun, and completely real physical phenomena. Detailed explanations and references to outside sources guide your way through the problems.You’ll discover answers to such questions as:Can you start a fire with ice?Why does the sky turn green just before a tornado?Why do wintergreen LifeSavers glow in the dark when you bite them?If you are falling in an elevator, should you try to jump up at the last second or lay flat against the floor?How do electric eels produce their electric field?Why is wet sand darker than dry sand?What causes an oasis mirage?Why do stars twinkle?Could you drive a car on a ceiling? About the Author Jearl Walker, professor of physics at Cleveland State University, received his BS in physics from MIT in 1967 and his PhD in physics from University of Maryland in 1973. His book The Flying Circus of Physics was published 30 years ago, has been translated into at least 10 languages, and is still being sold world wide. For 16 years he toured his Flying Circus talk throughout the U.S. and Canada, introducing such physics stunts as the bed-of-nails demonstration and the walking-on-hot-coals demonstration to countless physics teachers, who then proceeded to hurt themselves when they repeated the stunts in their own classrooms. These talks led to his PBS television show Kinetic Karnival which ran nationally for years and which earned an Emmy. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐When I purchased “The Flying Circus of Physics”, I expected there to be roughly thirty very well-chosen example problems/experiments with deep and insightful explanations including clear diagrams elucidating the physics behind them. What I got was a hodgepodge of mostly random questions followed by essay-answers that usually lacked diagrams and didn’t do a good job of highlighting the underlying physics.Although the book is ostensibly organized by subject matter (that is, chapters on motion, fluids, sound, thermal processes, electricity and magnetism, optics and vision), I felt that questions were disconnected from one another even within these categories and it read like a popular science magazine–a consortium of articles that provide a little insight into the underlying physics, but mostly leave you dizzy and confused.An example of what I mean are questions 1.145 and 1.146. These questions are in the chapter on motion and come sequentially. The first is about why you cannot totally crumple a piece of paper and the second is about why shooting a glass beaker filled with water does not shatter the glass, but rather turns it into a powder. Although I’m sure if you tried hard enough you could draw a connection (as with anything in the world), these questions really have nothing to do with one another. More importantly, they aren’t good problems for explaining important physics topics. They are neat phenomena that have something to do with physics and make you wonder a bit, but really don’t get at the heart of important concepts. And just to really nail my point, the following question is about why pictures hanging with a short length of cord become crooked more easily than pictures hanging with a long length of cord. Again, a neat topic, but totally disjointed from the previous questions, thus making it hard for the reader to build their physical intuition.So to recap my major qualms:-Not nearly enough diagrams (and the diagrams are too small and often not great)-Random arrangement of questions (and too many!)-Answers often feel confused and not focused on developing physical intuitionIn sum, I would not recommend this book. I would, however, recommend pouncing on Lewis Carroll Epstein’s “Thinking Physics”, which does a PHENOMENAL job of developing your physical intuition if you work through it properly. For what it’s worth, I have a physics degree.

⭐For about a year, I’ve restrained myself from buying this book, since the reviews and description did not reflect the 2007 (once set at 2006) edition. About a month ago, I suggested they do something about it. I may have even written to Walker. At last, the description is up to date. However, a week ago I just decided to buy the book and write a mini-review. I’m just going to say a few words though.It’s a much larger format width/height wise. The answers are placed after the question and they are generally much longer responses than the first edition, which I thought were a bit too brief. These are completely new topics. The references are gone, but I do believe they are on his web site–in spades. There’s quite a bit of supplemental info there. To find it his site just Google to “Jearl Walker” flying circus.I suspect another difference in the book is the questions seem to have gotten further away from common basic physics. For example, in his first book he poses the question why does the cardboard stay in place when you turn over a glass of water with a cardboard over its mouth? Of course, there are many deeper questions in edition one. Nevertheless, his questions are interesting in the second edition. He’s punctuated the book with some fun “short stories” like fire-walking. The book strikes me something like the approach of Mad about Physics, which also pulls examples from (a) physics journal in the manner of Walker’s first edition. I don’t quite see the “conceptual” tone as in Paul Hewitt’s book Conceptual Physics, or in Epstein’s Thinking Physics. Just different ways of thinking about physics.

⭐I bought a first addition of this book for myself way back in the late 70s. I loved it, and people who came to my apartment often picked it up and instantly became engrossed in it. One of those people was a woman friend who later became a world renowned psychologist. She was, and still is, one of the most inquisitive people I know. For her birthday one year, I bought her a copy of her own. Unfortunately it was the one *without* answers, which was tantamount to giving someone a gift box they could never open. It was torture and I ended up giving her my personal copy *with* answers.This Christmas I bought this updated version for my 12 year old granddaughter, and I was a little disappointed when it arrived. For one thing, the print quality is not what you would expect for the price. For another, the interior artwork lacks the visual appeal and whimsy of the original.I still love this book for what it does, and I think it’s a great gift for anyone who likes to know the science behind why and how things are the way they are.

⭐I cannot claim to “review” this book because I bought it for my grandson’s birthday, and looked through it only cursorily. It was recommended to me by a qualified PhD for him. I did spot check a few pages where I felt qualified, and was favorably impressed with Walker’s approach. I suppose it is directed at a science-motivated high school student. As I recall, he first selects a narrow topic and then explains it in some detail without trying to snow anyone. Given some free time to study it thoroughly, I would certainly buy a copy for myself to learn about related fields of science, and to update my own specialty field. If there is to be any downside, this light-hearted title is a bit of a misnomer and may put some people off. My apology to the author.

⭐Beyond the very speculative and unreachable theories like the « String Theory » and the « Quantum Gravity Theory », there is the « everyday physical world » which is still full of mysteries but accessible. Professor Jearl Walker is our guide to understand those mysteries and feeling smarter.The only weak I’ve found is that the book is lacking of enough illustrations and diagrams.Thanks Professor Walker to help us understand the world around us.

⭐I was recommended this book by my physics teacher.Each question makes you think extremely hard about all the physics you have learnt.These questions ask us to question our knowledge to understand the everyday things that happen in our lives.i.e why is sound louder at night than day?I am a student planning to study physics at university, where I have been offered a place for Oxford.This book allowed me to prepare for the strange questions which are asked in Oxford.It sorts your mind out to think with your physics knowledge.I highly recommend it to anyone applying for physics.A great book to make you think and enjoy the works of nature.Recommended to all but especially to physics students

⭐This is one of the best books around if you want to see how Physics can be applied. It is also brilliant if you ever think “I wonder why that happens”. I bought this for a sixth form library and I hope the book gives them the pleasure that it has given me.

⭐An ‘old favourite’ that continues to please! There’s more to physics than the maths, but not so many books that range as widely & so well as this one.

⭐Esperei oito meses para receber esse livro. Custou R$ 248,00. A capa dele é frágil igual aquelas capas de catálogo telefônico de antigamente e as folhas parecem papel higiênico.Quanto ao conteúdo, ele apresenta a física aplicada a diversas situações do cotidiano, com muito texto (ponto positivo), mas pouco cálculo (ponto negativo). E não tem nenhum exercício para praticar.Conclusão: nem percam tempo tentando comprar essa joça.

⭐

⭐One of the best physics books I ever had. Lovely written and with so many beautiful experiments – your kids or school class will love it!

Keywords

Free Download The Flying Circus of Physics 2nd Edition in PDF format
The Flying Circus of Physics 2nd Edition PDF Free Download
Download The Flying Circus of Physics 2nd Edition 2006 PDF Free
The Flying Circus of Physics 2nd Edition 2006 PDF Free Download
Download The Flying Circus of Physics 2nd Edition PDF
Free Download Ebook The Flying Circus of Physics 2nd Edition