Brainteaser Physics: Challenging Physics Puzzlers

✍ Scribed by Göran Grimvall

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 173
• Edition: illustrated edition
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Does a glass of ice water filled to the brim overflow when the ice melts? Does the energy inside a sauna increase when you heat it up? What's the best way to cool your coffee -- adding the creamer first or last?

These and other challenging puzzlers provide a fresh -- and fun -- approach to learning real physics. Presenting both classic and new problems, Brainteaser Physics challenges readers to use imagination and basic physics principles to find the answers. Göran Grimvall provides detailed and accessible explanations of the solutions, sometimes correcting the standard explanations, sometimes putting a new twist on them. He provides diagrams and equations where appropriate and ends each problem by discussing a specific concept or offering an extra challenge.

With Brainteaser Physics, students and veteran physicists alike can sharpen their critical and creative thinking -- and have fun at the same time.

(June 12, 2007)

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
PROBLEMS......Page 12
Reaching Out......Page 13
One, Two, Three, Infinity......Page 14
Simple Timetable......Page 15
SOLUTIONS......Page 16
PROBLEMS......Page 42
More Gas?......Page 43
Mariotte’s Bottle......Page 44
SOLUTIONS......Page 45
PROBLEMS......Page 66
What Is the Charge?......Page 67
Filling a Barrel......Page 68
Slapstick......Page 69
SOLUTIONS......Page 70
PROBLEMS......Page 90
Lightbulb Found in a Drugstore?......Page 92
Yin and Yang......Page 93
SOLUTIONS......Page 94
PROBLEMS......Page 119
Time for Contact......Page 120
SOLUTIONS......Page 121
PROBLEMS......Page 138
The Sugar Box......Page 139
Testing the Hammer......Page 140
Three Switches......Page 142
SOLUTIONS......Page 143
Coda......Page 157
Further Reading......Page 160
C......Page 168
E......Page 169
L......Page 170
R......Page 171
T......Page 172
Y......Page 173