Geek Physics: Surprising Answers to the Planet's Most Interesting Questions

Have you ever wondered whether a human could really fly with wings like a bird’s? What about how many zombies you could actually drive through? Or whether airplanes could save fuel by using iPads instead of paper safety manuals? How about whether Superman could really punch someone into space?In Geek Physics, Rhett Allain, a physics professor and Wired’s popular Dot Physics blogger, finds intriguing questions buried in familiar movies and TV shows, video games, viral videos, and news hooks and walks readers through the fascinating answers from a physics perspective, without all the complicated details. Geek Physics appeals not just to the geek oriented but also to anyone who loves pop culture and technology. With illustrations, basic equations, and easy-to-read graphs and diagrams, each chapter not only covers the most popular subjects from Allain’s blog, like lightsabers and McDonald’s drive-thrus, but uses those questions from a less technical approach to teach basic physics concepts. What better way to explain the nature of light than to consider how Gollum could see in the dark? Geek Physics explores interesting questions like: * How much bubble wrap would you need to safely jump off a 6th floor building? * Why does R2-D2 fly the way he does? * Why does a mirror reverse left to light, but not top to bottom? * Is Angry Birds using real physics? * Does a heavier truck make a better snow plow? * What if everyone on earth jumped at the same time? * How many dollar bills would it take to stack them to the moon?

Table of Contents:
How Fast Do Tweet Waves vs. Seismic Waves Travel? How Much Would R2-D2 Weigh If He Could Fly? How Realistic Is the Physics in Angry Birds? Big Space Ships With Even Bigger Thrusters Jumping Off a Building With Bubble Wrap Is It Better to Crash Into Another Car, or a Brick Wall? Can a Human Out-Pull a Truck? Would the Hulk Break the Road Whenever He Jumped? Can Humans Fly Like Birds, With Wings? Can You Fall Faster Than the Speed of Sound? Big Hail Is Bad Why Do Astronauts Feel Weightless? How Can a Broom Balance On Its Brushes? Can You Cook a Turkey By Dropping It? How Much Energy Does It Take to Get a Candy Bar in Orbit? Building and Supplying a Death Star With the ATV The Long Jump: Gravity and Air Linear Regression and the Long Jump Power and Olympic Swimmers Scoring the Decathlon Diving and the Moment of Inertia Could Cyclists Cheat With Hidden Batteries? What is Arnold Schwarzenegger Made Of? What Does Pi Have to do With Gravity? Can Airplanes Save Fuel by Using iPads? How Many Zombies Could You Drive Through? How Much Water Would It Take to Move a Car? Could Adam Savage Have Accidentally Killed Himself in the Swimming Car Myth? A Scale at the Bottom of a Pool Spaceships Underwater How Much Ice Do You Need to Cool Your Beer? Can Ice Cream Get Cold Enough to be Zero Calories? The Power Source for a Light Saber Can You Charge Your Phone by Typing? Why Do Mirrors Reverse Left and Right, But Not Up and Down? Can a Building Be a Sun-Death Ray? Gollum Physics The Physics of Thor’s Hammer A Banana Powered Generator How Many Dollar Bills Would it Take to Stack Them to the Moon? Could You Build a Scale LEGO Model of the Death Star? Would You Rather Fight a Horse-Sized Duck or 100 Duck-Sized Horses? NASA Space Games

About the Author :
Rhett Allain an Associate Professor of Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University and a popular Dot Physics blogger at Wired Science Blogs. He has a knack for explaining things in a way that is both entertaining and useful. He is also the author of the National Geographic book Angry Birds Furious Forces: The Physics at Play in the World's Most Popular Game and of Just Enough Physics. He lives in Louisiana.

Review :
"Geek Physics shows us the joy to be found in using simple models and physics principles to dig deeper into everything from sports to comic-book movies. And, as it turns out, adding a little physics makes everything more fun." —Chad Orzel, author of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog "This book won my heart after it estimated lightsaber temperature from the color of molten metal."—Zach Weinersmith, author and illustrator of the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal “Geek Physics will cause you to see the relevance of physics to life’s hidden, everyday questions. It's the superposition of Hollywood, Mythbusters, YouTube, physics and Rhett Allain’s knack for asking interesting questions.” —Dr. Aaron Titus, codeveloper of WebAssign "Everything that happens in the world is described by physics. Interestingly, even things that don't happen are described by physics. In this delightful book, Rhett Allain uncovers the science behind some of the most fun hypothetical questions we can ask, from Han shooting first to the power in Superman's fists." —Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and author of The Particle at the End of the Universe