One of America's most prominent popular science writers presents simple instructions for using common household items to illuminate scientific principles. Simple enough to be understood by an 11-year-old but informative enough for adults, 100 illustrated experiments cover subjects from astronomy, che... read more
Calculator Puzzles, Tricks and Games by Norvin Pallas Perform amazing feats of mathematical magic, answer clever riddles, solve a baffling murder, and much more with this clever introduction to calculator games. Answers included.
Science Magic Tricks by Nathan Shalit Easy-to-follow instructions, clear illustrations for 50 safe, science-related tricks: making squares and lines disappear, creating a magical doorway out of paper, cutting glass with scissors, and much more.
Clouds in a Glass of Beer: Simple Experiments in Atmospheric Physics by Craig F. Bohren Liberally sprinkled with humor, these lessons will fascinate beginning physics students and other readers with chapters titled "On a Clear Day You Can't See Forever" and "Physics on a Manure Heap."
Mind-Boggling Word Puzzles by Martin Gardner, V.G. Myers A famous puzzlemeister presents 103 perplexing brainteasers, anagrams, and rebus and logic puzzles. There are clues — and humor — in the 69 whimsical illustrations, plus solutions for anyone who gets stumped.
Mental Magic: Surefire Tricks to Amaze Your Friends by Martin Gardner, Jeff Sinclair Professor Picanumba has dozens of surefire tricks up his sleeve — and he's willing to show junior mathemagicians how to predict the answers to 88 word and number challenges. Includes solutions and illustrations.
Martin Gardner's Science Magic: Tricks and Puzzles by Martin Gardner Fun and fascinating, 89 simple magic tricks will teach both children and adults the scientific principles behind electricity, magnetism, sound, gravity, water, and more. Only basic everyday items are needed. Includes 89 black-and-white illustrations.
Planet Earth Projects by Oksana Kemarskaya Kids can experience the satisfaction of recycling as well as the thrill of creativity with dozens of activities — starting an ant colony, building a birdbath, growing sunflowers, making puppets, more.
Hobby Fun Book: For Grade School Boys and Girls by Margaret O. Hyde, Frances W. Keene There's fun on every page of this book of easy at-home activities. Kids can make their own amusements with pets, papercrafts, painting, modeling, and simple experiments involving chemistry and electricity.
Science Projects for Young People by George Barr More than 30 safe and entertaining experiments explain the scientific principles behind electricity and magnetism, light and color, water and air, sound and music, plants and animals, and much more.
Science Around the House: Simple Projects Using Household Recyclables by Roz Fulcher This charmingly illustrated book shows kids how to conduct basic science experiments using recycled household items. They'll learn about sound waves by making their own kazoos and build a battery, birdbath, windsock, and other items.
Outside the Box!: Creative Activities for Ecology-Minded Kids by Joan Irvine, Linda Hendry With these step-by-step instructions and hundreds of illustrations, kids can transform a cardboard box into fun activities — from a puppet theater to a miniature golf game. A rewarding lesson in recycling and creativity!
The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday This highly readable text by a famous inventor explores the components and weight of the atmosphere; capillary attraction; carbon content in oxygen and living bodies; and much more. Numerous illustrations.
Life in a Bucket of Soil by Alvin Silverstein, Virginia Silverstein Grade-schoolers learn how ants, snails, slugs, beetles, earthworms, spiders, and other subterranean creatures live, breed, interact, move about, defend themselves, and more.
A World in a Drop of Water: Exploring with a Microscope by Alvin Silverstein, Virginia Silverstein Fascinating introduction to the world of single-celled organisms recounts the feeding, reproductive, and defensive strategies employed by an array of curious creatures: amoeba, paramecium, suctorian, hydra, others. Easy-to-understand language, 37 illustrations.
Chemical Magic by Leonard A. Ford Classic guide provides intriguing entertainment while elucidating sound scientific principles, with more than 100 unusual stunts: cold fire, dust explosions, a nylon rope trick, a disappearing beaker, much more.
Product Description:
One of America's most prominent popular science writers presents simple instructions for using common household items to illuminate scientific principles. Simple enough to be understood by an 11-year-old but informative enough for adults, 100 illustrated experiments cover subjects from astronomy, chemistry, physiology, psychology, mathematics, topology, probability, acoustics, and other areas.
Reprint of Science Puzzlers, The Viking Press, New York, 1960.
The worldwide mathematical community was saddened by the death of Martin Gardner on May 22, 2010. Martin was 95 years old when he died, and had written 70 or 80 books during his long lifetime as an author. Martin's first Dover books were published in 1956 and 1957: Mathematics, Magic and Mystery, one of the first popular books on the intellectual excitement of mathematics to reach a wide audience, and Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, certainly one of the first popular books to cast a devastatingly skeptical eye on the claims of pseudoscience and the many guises in which the modern world has given rise to it. Both of these pioneering books are still in print with Dover today along with more than a dozen other titles of Martin's books. They run the gamut from his elementary Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing, which has been enjoyed by generations of younger readers since the 1980s, to the more demanding The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings, which Dover published in its final revised form in 2005.
To those of us who have been associated with Dover for a long time, however, Martin was more than an author, albeit a remarkably popular and successful one. As a member of the small group of long-time advisors and consultants, which included NYU's Morris Kline in mathematics, Harvard's I. Bernard Cohen in the history of science, and MIT's J. P. Den Hartog in engineering, Martin's advice and editorial suggestions in the formative 1950s helped to define the Dover publishing program and give it the point of view which — despite many changes, new directions, and the consequences of evolution — continues to be operative today. In the Author's Own Words: "Politicians, real-estate agents, used-car salesmen, and advertising copy-writers are expected to stretch facts in self-serving directions, but scientists who falsify their results are regarded by their peers as committing an inexcusable crime. Yet the sad fact is that the history of science swarms with cases of outright fakery and instances of scientists who unconsciously distorted their work by seeing it through lenses of passionately held beliefs."
"A surprising proportion of mathematicians are accomplished musicians. Is it because music and mathematics share patterns that are beautiful?" — Martin Gardner
This book was printed in the United States of America.
Dover books are made to last a lifetime. Our US book-manufacturing partners produce the highest quality books in the world and they create jobs for our fellow citizens. Manufacturing in the United States also ensures that our books are printed in an environmentally friendly fashion, on paper sourced from responsibly managed forests.