What Einstein Told His Barber: More Scientific Answers to Everyday Questions

by Robert L. Wolke

What makes ice cubes cloudy? How do shark attacks make airplanes safer? Can a person traveling in a car at the speed of sound still hear the radio? Moreover, would they want to...?

Do you often find yourself pondering life's little conundrums? Have you ever wondered why the ocean is blue? Or why birds don't get electrocuted when perching on high-voltage power lines? Robert L. Wolke, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh and acclaimed author of What Einstein Didn't Know , understands the need to...well, understand. Now he provides more amusing explanations of such everyday phenomena as gravity (If you're in a falling elevator, will jumping at the last instant save your life?) and acoustics (Why does a whip make such a loud cracking noise?), along with amazing facts, belly-up-to-the-bar bets, and mind-blowing reality bites all with his trademark wit and wisdom.

If you shoot a bullet into the air, can it kill somebody when it comes down?

You can find out about all this and more in an astonishing compendium of the proverbial mind-boggling mysteries of the physical world we inhabit.


Arranged in a question-and-answer format and grouped by subject for browsing ease, WHAT EINSTEIN TOLD HIS BARBER is for anyone who ever pondered such things as why colors fade in sunlight, what happens to the rubber from worn-out tires, what makes red-hot objects glow red, and other scientific curiosities. Perfect for fans of Newton's Apple, Jeopardy!, and The Discovery Channel, WHAT EINSTEIN TOLD HIS BARBER also includes a glossary of important scientific buzz words and a comprehensive index. -->

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Reference, Audiobook, Humor, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2000

About the author

Robert L. Wolke is professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh and a food columnist for The Washington Post. As an educator and lecturer, he enjoys a national reputation for his ability to make science understandable and enjoyable.
He is the author of Impact: Science on Society and Chemistry Explained, as well as dozens of scientific research papers. His latest book, the fourth in his Einstein series on everyday science, is What Einstein Told His Cook 2, The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science.
Robert L. Wolke has won the James Beard Foundation’s award for the best newspaper column and the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ (IACP) Bert Greene Award for the best newspaper food writing. “What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained” was nominated by both the James Beard Foundation and the IACP as the best technical or reference book of the year. The American Chemical Society has selected Dr. Wolke for the 2005 Grady-Stack Award for interpreting chemistry for the public.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried, I really did. I engaged my brain, or attempted to, but it said "give me a break," and tuned out. I had quite enjoyed What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained and What Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science but this was beyond my little brain (sorry brain). What really pissed me off was his long and very detailed explanation of why Crookes Radiometer spins in the light. He says that all the explanations are actually wrong. Then goes on to say no-one actually knows how it works. So why fucking waste my time then?

It was all downhill from there. At about the middle of the book I'd had enough. Life is too short for being pissed off at something that doesn't hold my attention long enough to see if I understand it or not (not, is the likely answer). Another thing, with all the books, is that I'm not that keen on the author. He writes in a voice that is I know you didn't ask but I'm sure you'd want to know, and kind of talking down to people who aren't as educated in science as he is. Like, "I have to dumb it down for all you people and I'll try and use words of no more than two syllables." (He didn't say that, it was just the tone of the book).

There was one really interesting nugget though:

If you wear suncream, say spf 20, spf 40 only contains about 3% more sun-filtering ingredients. Spf 20 blocks 93% of UVB rays, spf 50 98% and after that they are just screwing with your mind and purse, there is no meaningful increase in protection meaning you can't really stay out that much longer. The spf figure refers to UVB radiation protection, not UVA which is also a guilty party in burning and cancer. For real protection you need to get a broad spectrum suncream which protects against UVA as well. However, the main reason you burn despite using cream is that most people only use about half as much as needed. It feels right, who wants to slather on teaspoonsful? But that's what's needed. (I didn't get all of this from the book but enough of it to send me to verify this small percentage increase on medical sites).

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been almost 40 years since I was in high school, so the refresher was welcomed. Besides, some of what I learned was wrong, but Wolke corrected & taught me in a very easy, often humorous manner. Each topic was well structured & many of the topics were prerequisites for others. He kept the tech speak to a minimum, using every day words to unravel the mysteries of every day life, explaining the tech terms as they came up.

Why does a drop of coffee leave a darker brown around the edges rather than the center? How do the tides work? Why does a can of carbonated drink blow up when you shake & then open it? Good stuff. I highly recommend this to everyone. There will likely be quite a few topics you'll already know, but there were quite a few I didn't - more than I care to admit - & I still read a fair few science articles.

[MarkusQ · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're tired of having the same old misconceptions about science and sciency things, this is the book for you; especially if you enjoy condescension, straw man arguments, and sloppy editing.
This book is chock full of amazing fact-shaped things such as "chlorine is the most abundant element in seawater" (page 183); "supersonic aircraft work best at frigid high altitudes where they don't have to go quite so fast to exceed the speed of sound" (page 150) and "it isn't very unusual for two full moons to fall in the same month; it happens about four times a year" (page 170).

I probably should have moved this to my "abandoned" shelf after the first 50 pages but the watching-a-train-wreck effect kicked in.

[Emanuele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il sottotitolo dice tutto.
Robert L. Wolke vi guiderà, in ogni singolo paragrafo - autonomo (potete leggere questo libro al contrario, da destra a sinistra, da sinistra a destra, saltando le pagine dispari, oppure alla maniera classica come fosse un romanzo) -, alla scoperta di un mondo che noi crediamo di conoscere, coniugando una rassicurante rigorosità scientifica con un non sempre sarcastico sarcasmo.
Il risultato è un tripudio di nozioni e curiosità dal sapore vagamente e personalmente respingente, a cui il sottoscritto tenta di avvicinarsi con la stessa circospezione di un cane che, tenendo una zampa alzata, le orecchie ritte e il tartufo in gran lavorìo, fiuta e ascolta ciò che gli è vicino.
Mi piace ma non ci sguazzerei dentro, ecco.

[D Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book doesn’t have anything to do with Einstein or his barber. The title is just a clever ploy to market a book about everyday science. Seeing how the author of the book is a professor at a university, he tries to capture the reader’s attention in probably the same way he would his students’ attention in a classroom. The only difference is that he has turned his stand-up lecture into a Q&A book and he probably is one of those few professors that wouldn’t put you to sleep while lecturing. In a somewhat amusing way, he explains the SCIENCE behind such questions as: If you drive your car faster than the speed of sound, can you hear the radio? Why is glass transparent? How can you tell the difference between a can of diet coke and regular coke if you do not taste them or read the labels? Some of the questions are good trick questions that could be amusingly useful in a science class or could be used in a friendly bet.

I found this book more gratifying than the book called ‘Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze’ by New Scientist and would recommend it as a good way to intellectually spend your leisure time.

[Ben Goodridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads like a college professor trying to engage a bored class by cracking jokes. It's good to have material that doesn't take its subject matter so seriously as to intimidate the reader (I still get hives when I think about some of the critical theory books I was forced to consume) but the effect as applied to this book is kind of uneven.

To be honest, this isn't really a cover-to-cover book. It's more of a bathroom reader. Some of it is sixth grade science class, some of it is party trivia, and some of it is "Well, I never really asked, but..." No, I wasn't particularly curious why the coffee in a coffee stain migrates to the edge, but thanks for the input. Not trying to be a bummer about the book - it IS a fun read - but I already knew why birds don't get electrocuted when they sit on power lines.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay read.

Good enough book. Good info sometimes.

Kind of geared towards kids. A bit cringey at times.
Honestly, most of the book felt like a grade 9 science class.

2.7/5

[Jill]

So, glass isn’t a super-cooled liquid. Who knew? I do now.

[Sadeq · Rating 4 out of 5]

مطرح کردن بررسی برخی سوالات علمی حول و اطرافمون که بعضا هنوز حل نشده اند(!) به زبانی جذاب و توضیح و مثال قصه‌وار

[Rouhollah Abdolvahab · Rating 4 out of 5]

بیشتر برای آدم های کم اطلاع و در عین حال علاقه مند به علم و کاربردهای آن مفیده.

[John Winkelman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good concept for a book to explain complicated science about simple, common things. I’m will look at similar titles from the same author.

[Neil Pierson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Supply your own punch line to the title. For example, "No, I don't own a comb." Or, Einstein didn't have a barber. Obviously.

But the idea is that a regular person like a barber has basic questions about how things work, and a genius like Einstein could answer those questions. There are a lot of these books around, and the basic requirements are that the questions be things that the reader might actually wonder about, and that the explanations be understandable. This is a pretty good example of the genre. The topics are interesting, the explanations reasonably clear, and the writing style jokey.

Federal law, or maybe human nature, mandates that I drop two fact-pellets into this review. (1) A full moon looks bigger when it first rises above the horizon, then looks smaller when it's up in the sky. Optical illusion, aka user error. If you hold a ruler at arm's length and note the diameter, it is the same whether near the horizon or in the sky. (2) A can of Diet Coke actually weighs less than a can of regular Coke, because the sweetener in Diet Coke is much lighter than the sugar in regular Coke. You can't feel the difference, but if you put the cans in a sink full of water, the Diet Coke will float higher. (3) Why is one side of aluminum foil shiny and the other side... Sorry, you only get two.

[Bill Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book "What Einstein Told His Barber" is a very good book. I have many reasons on why I like this book but, first thing is first. This book is not actually about what Einstein told his barber. It's actually a book about the explanations of modern phenomenons. But, Robert Wolke named this book "What Einstein Told His Barber." because it's a thought of if Einstein went to the barber the content of the book would be what Einstein would tell his barber. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who has an interest in the field of science. This book has taught me a lot about the field of science. Its told me how scientists came up with the SPF number of sunblock. The answer is that for an average person to stand out in the sun it takes a certain amount of time till they start burning but if you you added sunscreen the number of the SPF tells how much longer you could stay outside in the sun till you started burning. If you like a plot or a story or anything like that the I would not recommend this book because it doses not contain any of that. But, I really like this book definetely a good informational book.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

with somewhat forced wit, a chemist covers an impressive swath of thermodynamics and other physics, but with some glaring errors, both historical (e.g. Einstein's photoelectric effect paper did not come 'long before' his special relativity paper--they both appeared in 1905) and physical (e.g., pressure at a surface can move that surface even though pressure is not a vector quantity and Newton's third law errors--the moon pulls on the earth just as much as the earth pulls on the moon). It feels like many have trod this ground before, but there are some new ways to look at old phenomena here. Along with his effort to keep the book timely, I would have liked him to touch on how these topics are playing out in the news these days, but it's solely intended to be educational-lite-fun.

[Ali Karimnejad · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I should admit that it doesn't have anything with Einstein.
The book is about scientific reasons of apparently simple events we usually see them everyday but we never think why they happen in this way. or maybe we think we know their reasons.

this is not a book you pick it up and start to read it to the end. The content is repleted with questions and answers. you may become curious by one or some of them. But for myself, all of them was exciting; especially those which looked more foolish.

[Anubhav · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read. The author answers some of the more obvious questions/ situations we see in everyday life. Why are ice cubes cloudy? Which is colder the north or south pole? Are humans radioactive? It's quite interesting and yes his explanations are not technical but in fact easy to understand.. His attempt at humour is actually amusing. Would recommend it.

[Pinaki Sadhukhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a fun read with good language. And, some parts of it are truly interesting. The reason why it gets only 2 stars is it has many mistakes here and there. For instance, the speed of light being told as 3 million kilometer per second everywhere was really bugging me throughout the book. There were many similar mistakes for values written in the metric system. Other than that the book was fine.

[Armin Hashemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

نسخۀ صوتی این کتاب را گوش دادم و جالب بود. کتاب هفت فصل دارد که بعضی از قسمت‌ها خسته‌کننده هستند و بعضی از آنها جذاب. البته شاید به سبب ندیدن عکس‌های کتاب که در نسخۀ کاغذی وجود دارد، آن قسمت‌ها را خسته کننده کرده است.

[Regina Glei · Rating 3 out of 5]

entertaining science snitbits, but the writing style was not my cup of tea. The author tried to be funny but it felt forced and the book would have been better without the attempts at humor.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love useless trivia type books.

[Daniel Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read, learned an amazing amount reading this book. Highly entertaining, and makes great dinner conversation. Well, with me at least.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

A hard book to review - essentially a curated list of "why does science do this?" questions. I think most readers are going to know some of the stuff in this, not be interested in some of the stuff, and find some of the stuff over their head. Despite the author's initial promise this book does get a lot more complicated than a few basic words.

The curation is ... I dunno, weird. There's definitely interesting stuff in here, and then there's stuff about how fluorescent light bulbs are categorized, some weird machine I've never heard of and that no one cares about that the author goes on about to eventually say, "It's complicated and I'm not going to explain it to you".

You can tell the author has favorites with this stuff - some of his explanations are much more effortless than others. It's disappointing to hear him casually mention the sentiment that he's shielding us from logarithms and calculus when discussing carbon dating - I mean, this is a science book, and the basic concepts of neither of those are hard enough that they wouldn't be warranted.

Some of the humor is okay in here, and some is veeery dated, if not straight up cringeworthy.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

More persistent questions about why things are as they are, or seem to be, answered with reasonably clear straightforward scientific explanations. Arranged sort of thematically – issues of movement, very loosely connected; problems of perception, like why mirrors work as they do, and why stagecoach wheels sometimes seem to be moving backward in Western movies; questions of heat and cold and electricity; gravity and Earth movements; how the atmosphere affects things like sound, and what happens to ordinary phenomena in space; water, oceans, rain; random stuff, like why do clothes wrinkle and why is fertilizer used as an explosive by terrorists.
Read as bedtime reading, for which it was very good, for the questions and answers were brief and concise, and usually interesting enough. There is another book in the series; I may or may not look for it.
I will remember how some of the questions and issues were rather silly and far-fetched, though the discussion of how airplane wings manage to lift up huge weight of the plane was thorough and confronted several half-assed explanations.

[Ruth Buckwell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know what I was expecting but this wasn’t it. I'm counting this as read because I read 75 pages and skimmed the rest. I already knew some of the answers to the scientific questions he poses but not others. I abandoned the book for a few days and out of duty went back to it hoping the new information had been retained. It hadn’t. So, if I had read the whole book I wouldn’t have remembered enough answers to make the time spent meaningful. I would have had to have read it three or four times, ie. studied it to make it worthwhile. That was definitely not going to happen. The tone felt pedantic (yes, I know it was supposed to be) and paternalistic to me. There is enough of that in real life to suffer it in book form.

This might be a good book for people looking to be a Jeopardy contestant, or trivia collectors but brief explanations to questions I didn’t care about and didn’t have enough background for, left me bored and defeated.

[Terra · Rating 5 out of 5]

un libretto davvero divertente, divulgazione scientifica a un livello comprensibile a tutti, al punto che molti argomenti e il linguaggio stesso mi sono sembrati spesso fin troppo semplici - ma non importa. è altamente godibile, secondo me: parte da fatti e oggetti della vita quotidiana per porre domande e dare risposte alle quali molti di noi non hanno mai pensato. ho sempre saputo che un fiammifero può bruciare e non "sbruciare", ma non avevo pensato che la legge dell'entropia (che pure ho studiato ere fa) potesse essere la spiegazione del perché. ho sempre detestato la chimica, ma la chimica della candela accesa mi ha affascinata. e ho sempre pensato che ci fosse un motivo spiegabile del perché il sole e la luna all'orizzonte sembrano più grandi di quanto lo sembrino allo zenit, mentre non è così, a meno che non si accetti il fatto che il nostro cervello ci inganna. raccomando questa lettura anche a chi non ha familiarità con i saggi scientifici: basta essere curiosi.

[Brianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can’t get over what a condescending jerk this guy sounds like. I was initially disappointed that it really has nothing to do with Einstein (I didn’t know anything about the book) but I figured it was worth a try since I love Freakonomics podcasts. Why not learn something while I do laundry and dishes?

I’ve been listening as an audiobook on 1.5x speed, and even at the increased pace, I can’t finish it. There’s no thesis to string all of the random trivia along, and I really couldn’t care less about labeling on fluorescent lights. The complete lack of thread, the condescending tone, and the lack of useful information is just too much. I’d maybe finish it if it was the only thing available to me while stranded in a desert, but I have way too many other books I’d rather enjoy and learn from.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Einstein Told His Barber is a good book for people who are very sciency and like to go in depth with every little thing they can think of. I am not one of those people so to me the book got boring sometimes. Though I can not lie it was very interesting. The book doesn’t have a plot so that is kinda a downer but manages to still be interesting in some aspects. The book tells you things and can relate to you by explaining things you never could.

The book has a very simple goal. Leave the viewer with no questions about simple physics. The book has answered questions I’ve asked myself for years! Such as “If you were in a car going faster than sound and had the radio on, would you be able to hear the radio”. The book managed to not only answer my question but leave me feeling like I am smart. I like this book, but there is no plot so it isn’t always interesting.

[natasa · Rating 1 out of 5]

a leghalványabb fogalmam sincs, miért pazaroltam napokat arra, hogy fanyalogva bele-belelapozzak ebbe a könyvbe, mert csak felbőszített a lekezelő stílusa. jobban jártam volna, ha előveszem az általános iskolás tankönyveimet, azokban talán nem számolják el kétszer is a fény sebességét, miközben pökhendi faszkalap módon lenéznek, hogy ki merem nyitni őket, hátha tanulok belőlük valamit. ha nincs kedve tájékozatlan emberek kérdéseire válszolni, akkor minek ír könyvet? már az előző kötetnél is fölvontam néha a szemöldököm a hangnemén, de abban legalább tényleg érdekesek voltak a témák. ez meg olyan volt, mint a másik pökhendi faszkalapnak, neil degrasse tysonnek a cosmos c. műsora: nem mondott semmi újat, de azt legalább úgy adta elő, mintha rajta kívül senki sem járta volna ki a nyolc osztályt.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the idea of this book. It very much reminded me of one of our favorite YouTube series called "It's OK to Be Smart". The book is full of random questions about the world with scientific answers and explanations. Some of the questions were obviously meant for a much younger audience--I already knew the answers to some of the questions--but many questions were really intriguing and interesting to read about. Some questions had answers that seemed far too lengthy and I tended to skim over some of the longer ones. But overall, this was a fun book for science-lovers. My 12 year old is thoroughly enjoying this book, especially the humor. I think this book is really targeted towards a pre-teen/early teen age group.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Wolke presented many fascinating bits of science how and why. I was a little put off by a superior attitude; multiple times he said "Scientists will tell you, but..." "people will tell you, but..."

Regarding the Shroud of Turin, he talked about the carbon dating without discussing the concerns that have been raised about it or any of the other evidence supporting the Shroud. He was rather derogatory regarding those who still believe in it or simply hold an open mind. Due to this approach that sometimes emphasized his beliefs over all the science available, I lost interest and didn't quite finish the book.