R EVIEWS
BOOK REVIEW
Complete A–Z Physics Handbook
I don’t know how I have managed to miss
two editions of this extremely useful
work. Every laboratory where physics is
taught should keep a copy at the front of
the class for those moments when a
definition will not assemble itself tidily
off the top of your head. The handbook
is far more than a dictionary because it
includes chunks of theory, plenty of
diagrams and worked examples, all in
admirable detail. I have learned, for
example, that thrust differs from force.
A student with a copy by their side
while working is able to check their
understanding of any unfamiliar word or
phrase. It is very well cross-referenced.
A wide range of topics is covered, from
refrigerators to Feynman diagrams, and
from sailing boats to stars. Omissions
noted were ‘accommodation of the eye’
and ‘data logging’. I have not found any
mistakes but I feel that a more up-to-date
method of measuring g using data logging
could have been included.
The book is printed in black-and-white
throughout. I feel this is appropriate for
BOOK REVIEW
Science Magic in the Kitchen
‘Using everyday objects around your
house, perform magic tricks that will
double as scientific experiments – you
will mystify your family and friends!’
Science entertainer Richard Robinson’s
series of childrens’ books are about the
amazing feats that you can perform based
on science. They’ve been written for kids,
so as an adult you should be prepared to
squirm when you read a chapter title (e.g.
‘Eggsamination: seven eggciting and
eggcentric things to do with eggs’).
Hugely corny and sometimes down-
right silly, the tricks are designed to bring
out the clever-clever in any literate
schoolchild above the age of eight. This
is a great little book for the library. Let
January 2004
a text at this level. The author is an
experienced chief/principal examiner, so
there is an emphasis on exam technique.
The appendices include a helpful
analysis of vectors and scalars; formulae
that must be learned and those that can
be provided; explanation of examiners’
terms; and a section on synoptic ques-
tions. Key phrases to revise and points
that distinguish an A-grade student (with
help to achieve them) are also listed.
You should at least get one copy for the
lab and one for the library.
Celia Bloor
Complete A–Z Physics
Handbook, 3rd edn
Michael Chapple
Rating: very good
Price: £9.99 (pbk)
Details: Published 2003, Hodder &
Stoughton, London, 306pp
ISBN: 0 340 87272 1
your kids come in and amaze you with
their ability to levitate raisins or make
bottles talk. And if you want to try a new
teaching style, the script is there.
Kerry Parker
Science Magic in the Kitchen,
revised edn
Richard Robinson
Rating: very good
Price: £3.99 (pbk)
Details: Published 2003, Oxford University
Press, 96pp
ISBN: 0 19 911154 5
P H YS I C S E D U C AT I O N 99
R EVIEWS
BOOK REVIEW
The Science of Cooking
Written on the back of his enormously
popular public lectures, this fun book
explains the scientific basis of food
preparation: how to cook steaks to
perfection by recognizing the effect of
temperature on muscle, for example.
I have always been fascinated by the
different mechanical properties of pastry
– why was mine so inedible, yet my
Grandma could make pastry that ‘melted
in your mouth’? This book was a
revelation – I just wish that I had been
taught this stuff when I learned to cook.
One of the most important aspects of
good cookery is temperature control.
This, of course, is physics. Barham
includes lots of recipes and demon-
strations. I’m eager to try to cook an egg
on a piece of paper and to boil water in
a balloon, as he describes. The book is
an inviting cocktail of science, recipes
and anecdotes, and it’s very readable for
BOOK REVIEW
Science Experiments You Can Eat
The moment of genius when she thought
of this concept brought Vicki Cobb a
place as a bestselling author and a career
as a science communicator.
The current issue should be in every
kids’ library. It is aimed at 9–14-year-
olds who are allowed and encouraged to
try edible experiments at home. If your
science club can use a teaching kitchen,
there are some ideal activities.
There are fascinating demonstrations
related to chemistry and biology (e.g.
vegetable indicators, demonstrations of
different types of proteins and how they
change). Those for physics are less
prominent, but there are great suggestions
for looking at syrups through ‘lenses’
from Polaroid sunglasses and checking
for colloids using the Tyndale effect.
While many long words are used with
generally good explanations, Cobb could
100 P H YS I C S E D U C AT I O N
anyone who has a science background.
Written for the proverbial intelligent
layman, it is probably best read by older
students. It is good for the library and
science department to share. It covers
the life sciences of plants and animals,
recognizing the way in which temper-
ature can be controlled to manipulate
molecules in food to make it nutritious,
tasty and palatable: that’s cooking!
Kerry Parker
The Science of Cooking
Peter Barham
Rating: very good
Price: £19.95 (hbk)
Details: Published 2001, Springer, Berlin,
244pp
ISBN: 3 540 67466 7
be accused of oversimplifying in places.
Some physics teachers may find the
book unpalatable because of her treat-
ment of polarized light and boiling. I love
it – there are some lovely simple ideas,
lots of fun for a curious youngster and
science is centre stage. The philosophy
of ‘let’s see what science we can learn in
the kitchen’ is most wholesome.
Kerry Parker
Science Experiments You Can Eat
Vicki Cobb
Rating: very good
Price: $5.95
Details: Revised and updated, published
1994, Harper Trophy, New York, 224pp
ISBN: 0 06 446002 9
January 2004
 R EVIEWS

WEB WATCH

These journal themes are pasta joke

Figure 1. Knots in spaghetti. Can you guess where it’ll break? Figure 2. Design your own pasta bridge.

My mother told me not to talk while I eat. Destructive testing

Maybe that’s why I find it hard to say a An article on molecular gastronomy at
great deal about these websites. www.intheweedz.com/Newsbites/physics
%20of%20food.htm presents the physics
Spaghetti and chemistry of food tastes.
Spaghetti crops up in physics all of the www.polsci.wvu.edu/Henry/Icecream/
time. Remember the story about Feyn- Icecream.html appears to be the first
man trying to work out the way it broke liquid-nitrogen ice cream site on the
when you put a dried piece under com- Internet and gives full instructions about
pression? It’s also good for investigating how to make this particular delicacy.
the physics of knots. See fizyka.phys.put.
poznan.pl/~pieransk/SpaghettiKnots.html Electroluminescence in pickles
(figure 1). See also the paper in the New research.compaq.com/wrl/techreports/ht
Journal of Physics at www.iop.org/EJ/ ml/TN-13/pickle.html clearly offers an
abstract/1367-2630/3/1/310) and there’s interesting topic for a coursework
more material at iop.org/news/0307p. investigation.
There’s some basic information about
bridges and spaghetti at enrich.sdsc.edu/ Bunny survival tests
SE/physicscompress.html, and examples www.keypad.org/bunnies/index.html is
of spaghetti bridges (figure 2) at www. humane and purely for fun.
bhhsbears.homestead.com/science_phy_
bridges.html and also on the Fettucini Near-infrared spectroscopy and food
Physics website at teachertech.rice.edu/ www.deanet.it/Vetrina_editori/Wiley%20
Participants/pschweig/lessons/Bridge Site/EAC/pdf/A1018-W.PDF contains
Project/pastacontest/page4.html, which material that may be of use to 16+-year-
is what I tend to think of when the words olds investigating in this area.
spaghetti and physics cross my mind.
It’s been a while since I built spaghetti Pressure cookers
bridges because now I use software to A real-life application of the gas laws is
build bridges (‘Web Watch’ 2002 Phys. explained at www.physics.isu.edu/~knox/
Educ. 37 92). Even astronomers are papers/cooker.PDF and missvickie.com/
getting in on the act at www.sciencedaily. workshop/howdoesit.html. The former
com/releases/2001/05/010515075430.htm. contains a history of pressure cookers.

January 2004 P H YS I C S E D U C AT I O N 101

R EVIEWS

Figure 3. How d’you eat in zero gravity? Figure 4. No sacrifice too big in the quest for scientific truth.

Don’t forget the thermoplastic yoghurt- Viscosity

pot trick at www.grand-illusions.com/ www.clemson.edu/foodscience/PDF%20
yoghurt/yoghurt.htm. Downloads/Science%20Experiments/
viscosity.pdf explains why viscosity is
Space big food business and outlines some
Astronaut food facts can be found at interesting activities.
www.sciencemaster.com/jump/space/ Dairy physics and chemistry at www.
space_food.php (figure 3), and you can foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/chem.html
buy your astronaut snacks at www. explains why the viscosity of milk
astronomers.net/space-program/us230. changes with temperature; how milk’s
htm. I guess they eat all of that ice cream refractive index is used to estimate the
because it’s easy to make in the cold of total solids; and other milk-related facts.
space, or is it to keep them cool when
they’re in the unsheltered glare of the Eating
Sun? When will they put a cow in space? The site at www.mrs.org/membership/
Will freeze-dried astronauts ever take off? preview/dec2000bull/Lillford.pdf gives
lots of pictures of bits of food after they‘ve
Physics on stage been chewed a certain number of times.
You’ve seen the poster and read the I’m now off to see if I can replicate
advert, now try a demo. education.iop. some important research findings. For
org/Schools/supteach/Demos.html has details, see www.mos.org/cst/article/
all of the demonstrations from Physics 4929/1.html (figure 4).
on Stage, including tea bags, cheese, eggs,
satsumas and microwaves. Gary Williams

WEB WATCH

Microwave oven Web links

The websites on microwave ovens are
either sensible or a bit crazy. The sensible
ones explain how microwave ovens work,
the history behind microwaves and
microwave safety. Crazier sites consider
the weirder things that you can do with
microwave ovens. Some are potentially
dangerous, so you shouldn’t attempt them
without a full risk analysis and thorough
preparation. Even then, consider whether
you want your students even to know
about them in case they try them at home.
I have discussed these experiments with
many experienced teachers and there is
a wide spectrum of opinion. Some would
say that the websites should be banned

102 P H YS I C S E D U C AT I O N January 2004

 R EVIEWS

because of what they might encourage How do microwaves cook food? Who
youngsters to do. Others would maintain invented microwaves? What is the mag-
that ignorance is never a good thing. netron and how does it work? Why does
Stan Micklavzina told me about how metal in a microwave cause arcing? What
his eight-year-old daughter, while playing is a voltage doubler and how does it work?
with a friend, tried to make popcorn in a
microwave in a metal pan with a metal www.physicscentral.com/lou/index.html
lid. (They used the microwave because There’s a lot of repetition in the questions
they knew the dangers of using the stove.) at this website, but there are also some
The girls switched on and then left the very good answers to things that concern
room. Stan came in to find a veritable many people – mostly about the dangers
electricity show in his kitchen, and he still of cooking with microwaves: Will I be
has a pan lid peppered with holes. It seems eating microwaves? I left my spoon in
that kids will experiment with microwave my cup while it was in the microwave –
ovens whatever we say, so it’s perhaps will my coffee be safe to drink? Does
better that they know the dangers first. microwave cooking break food cells and
make it less nutritious? These questions
Sensible sites provide an excellent resource for teachers
www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/microwave.html – they could practise being the ‘expert’,
This site goes into detail about the or they could look at people’s concerns
interaction between microwaves and with new technology and some of the
matter. There is plenty of maths, but the myths that have arisen about cooking with
opening section is good for math-phobics. microwave ovens.
The extensive site about water, developed
by Martin Chaplin of London South Bank Crazier sites
University, is worth bookmarking. Physics Education doesn’t endorse any
of these sites for use with students, but
www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/19 they’re interesting for teachers to consider.
93/0493DE.html
Food Product Design is a magazine www.eskimo.com/~billb/weird/microexp.
aimed at people in the food business. This html I don’t expect you to try these
article by Robert Schiffmann, dating from experiments, particularly the ones with
April 1993, explains the story behind the a light bulb and a candle.
design of the microwavable ready meal.
home.earthlink.net/~marutgers/fun/micro
howthingswork.virginia.edu/microwave_ wave/microwave.html
ovens.html This site, by Maarten Rutgers, is one to
Louis A Bloomfield, professor of physics show your students cautiously. Rutgers
at the University of Virginia, answers has drilled a hole in the side of a
questions from the general public about microwave oven and examined the
using microwaves. behaviour of poptarts, CDs and grapes,
thermal fax paper, water and many other
gallawa.com/microtech/mwfaq.html items. The video footage is impressive.
This site allows you to ‘explore the
mysteries of microwave energy’. It is The website at apache.airnet.com.au/~
highly readable and aimed at the home- fastinfo/microwave/ball.html offers many
owner who is curious about their micro- examples of generating plasmas in micro-
wave oven. FAQs include: How does a wave ovens.
microwave oven work? What are micro-
waves? How dangerous are microwaves? Kerry Parker

January 2004 P H YS I C S E D U C AT I O N 103

R EVIEWS
CD REVIEW
Electricity and Magnetism, KS3
The Labelling Zone: one of several drag-and-drop exercises.
The target audience for this CD is 11–14-
year-olds. The material covers all of the
KS3 targets relating to electricity and
magnetism, including static electricity,
positive and negative charges, current
electricity, conductors and insulators,
circuit components, series and parallel
circuits, and magnets and magnetic fields.
I think that some of the models go beyond
those needed for this age group in terms
of complexity, but I see that as a good
thing in that it stretches the more able.
The navigation is good. It’s easy to get
to the main menu at any time and it’s clear
where items will be if you’re conversant
with the material covered.
The quality of the graphics is very good
with plenty of animations. The text is
medium-sized but can’t be changed.
Audio isn’t necessary because the
narrator repeats the words on the screen,
but some of the background sounds are
pretty good and make it feel lively. You
can choose voice, music or both.
The CD is highly interactive. Pupils
listen to the narration and/or read the text
on the screen, then go to the next screen.
At the end of sections they do a drag-and-
drop exercise. Each section is only a few
104 P H YS I C S E D U C AT I O N
screens, so it doesn’t take long before
you’re doing something. After you’ve
done all of the sections in a chapter, you
get to play quite a challenging game and
while you play you’re asked questions
about the material that you’ve covered.
No worksheets are supplied with the
software but there is an extended ques-
tions section and teachers can look at the
answers that pupils have typed in. There
are 15 questions and they lend themselves
to longer, written (or typed) answers.
The software is reasonably suitable for
data projection given that the animations
are very clear, although the text is on the
small side for this. Everything is arranged
in tidy, single-screen packets, which is
good for data projection. With speakers,
pupils would hear the narration, which
would make the text size less important.
The CD could easily be used by pupils
sharing a computer. The tendency is to
follow the sections through rather than
browse because you might miss some of
the games and drag-and-drop exercises
if you skip about too much. In my view
the best use of this software is revision
with some classroom projection where
the graphics are relevant.
This is a great product and it holds the
attention of pupils well. It is moderately
priced and I’ve seen nothing better for
revision, so I’d say that it’s good value.
You can’t access the animation other
than through the program but the CD
doesn’t need to be in the drive for the
software to run. The games don’t distract
from learning but, because there is direct
access to the games via the Games Zone
on the main menu, they could. Installation
is easy and I’ve not experienced any bugs.
My main criticism is the CD’s resem-
blance to the previous one reviewed in
the July 2003 issue of Physics Education
(38 346), which was Waves for 14–16-
year-olds. The games and layout are too
similar. If you’ve worked through one of
January 2004

these CDs, another will seem very much
the same (with the same drag-and-drop
exercises, same games, same music, etc).
I expected the games to be easier for
the 11–14 CD but they were the same as
for the 14–16 CD. I don’t think it would
be worth buying more than two different
CDs because pupils will lose interest, but
I’d certainly recommend at least one.
Gary Williams
CD REVIEW
Big Science Comics
This puts things in a comic-book context
and is more like a game than a typical
educational physics CD. You’re told a
story and you have to solve problems
along the way using ‘bumpz’ – little
creatures of different colour and mass.
The target audience is 8–12-year-olds.
The style is very much empirical prob-
lem solving and pupils probably won’t
make the jump to the relevant curriculum
statement. There are different levels for
each problem, but sometimes they’re just
more rather than further.
Navigation is easy – you just follow
the story. This means that you can’t just
jump to a section, though – you have to
turn the pages of the virtual comic.
The quality of graphics is good but the
software runs on 256 colours and you
have to use the compatibility option in
Windows XP. The text is small and I can
see no way of changing it. The characters
talk and make noises, so audio is needed.
The interactivity is reasonably good.
You don’t tend to get bored but you do
get frustrated – you have to read a few
pages or listen to narration before being
given a problem to solve.
There is little scope for data projection
because the activity is very structured and
the way in which the material is presented
doesn’t lend itself to the classroom.
This is one of the few CDs that I wasn’t
sent to review. I actually paid money for
it and ordered it from the USA just
January 2004
R EVIEWS
Electricity and Magnetism, KS3
Birchfield Interactive
Rating: excellent
Price: $79.95 (excl. VAT, multiuser licence)
Details: Produced 2002, Richard Sharp
System requirements: Windows 95/98/
2000/ME/XP or NT, 128MB RAM, 500 MB
hard disk space
Available from:www.birchfieldinteractive.com/
because I liked the sound of the title.
Does it hold the attention of children?
Yes – my eldest son (Jacob, aged 6) loves
it. It’s strange, then, that it’s not made its
way into my classroom, but in the context
of teaching physics the CD is of minimal
use. It’s excellent at what it was designed
for – ‘developing critical thinking skills
through experimentation’, but, even
though the subject matter is related to the
curriculum, I don’t envisage this adding
a great deal to a pupil’s knowledge base.
If you like to use a lot of CASE-type
activities, it may be worth a look. I would
buy it again, but only for that lesson when
all but two of the class are playing in a
rugby/hockey match and I’m stuck for
something to do.
Gary Williams
Big Science Comics
Rating: poor
Price: $37.95 (single user, teacher
edition) $79.95 (site licence)
Details: Produced 1997, Theatrix Interactive
System requirements: Windows 8MB RAM,
4× CD-rom, 256 colours, 66MHz 486
processor; Mac 8MB RAM, 4× CD-rom,
256colours, 25MHz 68030 processor.
Available from: www.edsoftware.com/
edsoftware/product.cfm?ProductName=
Big%20Science%20Comics
P H YS I C S E D U C AT I O N 105