Entertainment = Interest x Effort
(En = I x Ef)
PHYSICS FOR ENTERTAINMENT
By Yakov Perelman
331 pp. Hyperion Books $18.95
Reviewed by Ruth Douillette
Raise your hand if you think “entertainment” and “physics” belong in the same sentence. Not too many, I see. Physics is all about work and pressure and friction. Gravity, pull, and push. Centrifugal force. Things that require effort. Opposing forces that are determined by mathematical formulas, extensive ones that some of us don't find entertaining in the least.
Physics for Entertainment might seem an oxymoronic title for those who remember their physics classes as either sleep-inducing or conducive to panic attacks the night before a test. And yet this book by Russian author Yakov Perelman (1882-1942) was written to entertain and became a best-seller in the former USSR in the 1930's.
It may be assigning too much glory to this odd little book, but Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman (no relation to the author) read it as a boy as part of his father's efforts to encourage his son's interest in science. In 2006, he proved the Poincaré conjecture, a topographical assertion that I won't attempt to explain. Suffice it to say, tremendous minds had worked on the solution for nearly a century before Perelman nonchalantly proved it. Raising the conjecture to theorem status won him the coveted Fields Medal. Now a recluse in Russia, Perelman refused the prize. But the point is, he mentioned Physics For Entertainment in a New Yorker story that led to the book being rediscovered and reprinted unchanged, except for translation, 70 years later. A nice feather in the leaves of this small book.
So is it entertaining, this book? Depends on what the meaning of entertainment is.
Some will be intrigued by the physics explained in a series of illustrated anecdotes:
In the absence of friction we wouldn't be able to have buttons on our clothes, says Perelman. In fact, nails would pop out of walls. Without friction all walking would be as if on ice.
Our hip joints, our entire pelvis in fact, would hold together without “muscle and gristle” by virtue of atmospheric pressure, and would resist being pulled apart.
Others will be fascinated by the references to the stories of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne and other tales that stretched known physical laws and extrapolated further to advance their plots:
The speed of the Nautilus in Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea reached twice the speed of the subs of the '30s, according to Perelman, and Captain Nemo's voyage was twice as long as was possible for the subs of that day, although the 1929 French sub Surcouff remained submerged 120 hours to Nautilus's 48. Verne's wildest imagination could not envision the capabilities of nuclear-powered vessels. The first nuclear submarine, ironically called USS Nautilus, was built in the '50s, and could circle the earth submerged for up to four months without refueling.
In The First Men on the Moon H.G. Wells takes his characters to the moon in a craft made of a material that rendered it weightless “and thus able to shoot up to the top of the ocean of air—much like a cork released at the bottom of a lake.” The space ship relies on the moon's gravitational pull to stay on course.
And many will be interested in the history embedded in the book:
The author who died in the 1942 siege of Leningrad, includes references to many events of the day, such as the Soviet ship Chelyuskin; which was crushed in the Arctic ice in 1934. Perelman describes the forces on the steel hull and why it collapsed.
Electromagnets were used in agriculture to weed a field. Iron filings, sprinkled in flax, clover and alfalfa seed that had been contaminated with weed seed, adhered to the hairy seeds of weeds. In the presence of a powerful electromagnet, the iron filings were attracted to the magnet and pulled the seeds with them.
And some—I fall in this category—will enjoy all of the above.
The book's content is perfect for inquisitive young scientists, but its delivery won't excite those born in the age of quarks and antimatter. The publisher chose to preserve the original style. The primitive black and white line drawings and quaint language will not appeal to today's kids who, no matter how bright, are more likely to turn to the Internet for the many interactive examples of physics waiting only to be Googled. Children who do entertain themselves by reading have come to expect colored diagrams, photos, and fast-paced words and ideas.
It is adults who will find the book amusing, and perhaps they'll recall old physics lessons. There are mathematical formulas worked out here and there within the text. They can be skimmed or devoured, without losing meaning, depending upon what you find entertaining. I take my entertainment sans math, thank you.
Despite my initial skepticism, born of a rough time with high school physics, Physics For Entertainment actually did. Entertain that is. The book provides “an agreeable occupation of the mind.”
Ruth Douillette is an associate editor of The Internet Review of Books.
See her blog at Upstream and Down~.
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