Entertaining Science Experiments with Everyday Objects

By Martin Gardner

Book Overview

To Martin Gardner, seeing is not just believing -- it is understanding. This fundamental rule has made him one of the most successful teachers and popularizers of science in America. With the simple instructions in this book and a few commonly available household objects, you or your child can easily learn even the most difficult scientific principles by directly experiencing how they work. Gardner shows you how to re-create classic experiments with easily obtainable objects. Using just a flashlight, a pocket mirror, and a bowl of water, you can demonstrate the color composition of white light just as Newton did 300 years ago. With cardboard, colored paper, and wax paper you can perform "Meyer's experiment" with complementary colors. You need only a playing card, a spool, and a thumbtack to demonstrate Bernoulli's principle of aerodynamics. A soda bottle filled with water, a few paper matches, and a toy balloon elucidate Pascal's law governing pressure in liquids. And two drinking glasses, some matches, and a piece of wet blotting paper re-create a famous experiment, first performed in 1650 in Magdeburg, Germany, that dramatically reveals the force of ordinary atmospheric pressure. In language simple enough to be easily understood by an 11-year-old, yet technically accurate and informative enough to benefit adults, and aided by Anthony Ravielli's clear illustrations, Gardner presents a splendid practical course in basic science and mathematics. While your child perplexes and delights his or her friends with a series of 100 amusing tricks and experiments, he or she is learning the principles of astronomy, chemistry, physiology, psychology, general mathematics, topology, probability, geometry, numbers, optics (light), gravity, static electricity, mechanics, air hydraulics, thermodynamics (heat), acoustics (sound), and inertia. This is a perfect refresher course for adults as well as an ideal introduction to science for youngsters. "The experiments ... are all clearly explained and unusually well illustrated." -- Booklist.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486242013
• ISBN13: 9780486242019
• Release Date: September 1981
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 9

Customer Reviews

Eager to use.

My grandson is already planning to use this book for his science project in school.

Super

I think anything by Martin Gardner is great. Enjoyable and for the most part practical.

Phsyics teacher

I am a physics teacher in a Mexican high school. We have a big problem in our country because we lack a scientific culture and background. This kind of books are excellent because help to promote scientific ideas without being boring.

A pretty good book, but not for very young children

I like to do science experiments with my grandson who is 6, and he loves them, so I try to find easy things to do for him. I was hoping this book would be better suited to our needs, but I feel like it is for older children 10 or 11 and up.