Entertaining Science Experiments with Everyday Objects

by Martin Gardner, Anthony Ravielli (Illustrator)

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.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Popular Science, Mathematics

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

About the author

Martin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature (especially the writings of Lewis Carroll), philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion. He wrote the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American from 1956 to 1981, and published over 70 books.

Reviews

[Roberto Rigolin F Lopes · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are in 1981, Gardner is sharing experiments that you can do at home. Well, you may have to rush to the supermarket to do all of them. He also do not use a smartphone (old book) but you can use yours to replace a flashlight and to record the show. More importantly, he encourage follow up investigations on the science explaining the experiments.

[Belle Meade School]

793

[Cheryl]

Simple, easy to do introductions to science concepts.

[Don Gubler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost like magic.

[Mark Ballard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gift from one of my favorite teachers, and easily one of my favorites in my youth.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book on exactly what it says.