Physics for Entertainment

Publisher Marketing: Physics For Entertainment by Yakov Perelman. Published in 1913, a best-seller in the 1930s and long out of print, Physics for Entertainment was translated from Russian into many languages and influenced science students around the world. Among them was Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman, the Russian mathematician (unrelated to the author), who solved the Poincar conjecture, and who was awarded and rejected the Fields Medal. Grigori's father, an electrical engineer, gave him Physics for Entertainment to encourage his son's interest in mathematics. In the foreword, the book's author describes the contents as "conundrums, brain-teasers, entertaining anecdotes, and unexpected comparisons," adding, "I have quoted extensively from Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Mark Twain and other writers, because, besides providing entertainment, the fantastic experiments these writers describe may well serve as instructive illustrations at physics classes." The book's topics included how to jump from a moving car, and why, "according to the law of buoyancy, we would never drown in the Dead Sea." Ideas from this book are still used by science teachers today. Yakov Isidorovich Perelman died in the siege of Leningrad in 1942. Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 11/19/2007 pg. 47 (EAN 9781401309213, Hardcover) Discover 02/01/2008 pg. 74 (EAN 9781401309213, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Perelman, Yakov Yakov Perelman (1882-1942) was a Russian and Soviet science writer and author of many popular science books. He has been known by his popular, witty and quite scientific works on physics, astronomy and mathematics, which are, moreover written in a marvelous language and are very readable. Contributor Bio:  Mitchell, Joe Henry The Newspaper Cartoonists' Association of Cleveland