Customer Reviews

How Everything Works: Making Physics Out of the Ordinary

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've read a number of science books over the years, some under duress, and others for the pleasurable bending of the brain that it provokes. This book ranks right alongside Hawkings' Brief History of time in terms of perspective-altering clout. Bloomfield's style is clear and concise, never lost me in the mumbo-jumbo, and is radiating with his own voice, a voice that is clearly ecstatic over the physics of microwaving metals, the curveball, and every other type of everyday physics you can imagine. He even made P-N junctions hilarious, if you dont know what that is, just look for the section about theatre patrons being hurled around by gorillas...

For days after reading this book I found myself wondering about the physics of things going on around me, and often able to come up with some realistic, (at least to my mind!) explanations for them based on the principles in How Eevrything Works.

If I'm sounding a bit like a big cheerleader for this book, that's good, I would encourage anyone to pick it up and read it through, if for no other reason than a few trippy days afterwards, staring at elevators and water pipes in awe.

Amazing.

I have bought hundreds of things from Amazon, books and otherwise, and have never felt the need to leave a review. This book is so phenomenal in its clarity, depth, and topic range that I simply feel obligated to rave.

Although I'm a grad student in CS my knowledge of physics is very weak, and there was a time when I dreaded physics in college. So when I ordered this book I was expecting something along the lines of an idiots guide. When it arrived, the textbook-like layout almost scared me off from reading, but when I started I couldn't put it down.

Almost every big question I've asked myself about the physics of the world I live in is answered clearly in this book, given our current state of knowledge. The planets and their relationship to calendars and cycles, eclipses and tides. Electricity. Light. Electromagnetics. Semiconductors. Airplanes. Buoyancy. Nuclear reactors. Power production, and on and on and on. So much, and described so well, that I've decided to put several weeks aside to enjoy this book.

For instance, in answering a question about electricity the author will take you on a seamless journey from Edison's initial ideas to modern distribution systems, to resistance, to types of current, to transformers, to voltage, to generators and motors, down to individual components like capacitors and semiconductors.

And the detail and flow is just beautiful. Prof Bloomfield achieved a very rare, delicate balance between being overly simplistic, and drowning the reader with unnecessary details. This sets the book miles apart from anything I've ever read about physics.

It's actually quite remarkable to know that so many who came before us have spent countless lifetimes trying to obtain the knowledge that is now on the pages of a book like this. Most people take these things for granted. And then there's a tiny minority amongst us who choose to know and understand.

Many of the popular physics books that have sold well since I started reading them about 20 years ago deal either with the incredibly small (quantum physics) or with the incredibly large/fast (relativity). These fields are where the action has been recently, so that's understandable. But the physics that operates in machines and things we see around us every day is largely classical physics, and I wish I'd focused more on that. That's one reason I love this book.

It is incredibly interesting and almost always easy to understand. It explains all sorts of technology - there are sections on automobiles, woodstoves, musical instruments, air conditioners, et cetera. It uses very little math, but it is written for serious reading - it's about 700 pages long, and I've been working at it for months, on and off, and am about a third of the way through.

I love it. (By the way, much modern technology does involve quantum effects, so I'm sure there is some coverage of them in this book. But it's still true that the book focuses on things we use and can hold in our hands.)

I ordered this book on a suggestion of Discover Magazine, and I was not let down. I am the type of guy who enjoys learning how things work, and this book was a true masterpiece. I really like the way Bloomfield structured the book into easy to read sections. It is also easy to either read all the technical stuff, or to just read the general information and see the diagrams.

If you are wanting a true "heavy science" technical book about Physics, this is not it. However if you would just like to "know" how certain things work, this book is the best I have seen. I think this book would be great for teenagers, and I have to admit, it's nice to know exactly how those elevators work, why planes can fly, and a ton of other common devices and contraptions as well. If you have any interest at all in how things work, you will really enjoy this book.

I love this book, I am enjoying every line of it.
It makes you understand so many things.
The author totally attains his goal: showing that most physics rely on the same simple principles, and that even complex theories, once disassembled, are within reach of anyone.
What also makes it so good is that physics are demonstrated through every day use things, so you feel compelled and can apply your new knowledge on your world.

1 Note though: if you have never opened a physics book, or if equations gives you chills, then this book is not for you. This is not entertainment science, it's the real deal with easy access.

This is one of the best books i have read on Physics. Kudos to the author for taking such good examples of things that we use in our everyday lives that we take for granted to always work. And tying them to the real concepts of physics with very detailed explanations. Exactly what i was looking for and the price was even better on Amazon.

This is a great book and has my differant things to learn about in it nice

A great book on the concepts of Physics and how things work in relation to Physics.

Some books are crammed full of info, but don't teach the subject matter very well. This book fortunatly does a fine teaching job.
I was concerned about whether to buy this book, thinking it might not be a smart way to spend my money. But,I found some info in it that prevented me from wasting my time on a tech project I was working on. If I hadn't gone ahead and spent the money on this book, I might have spent some serious money on my tech project...only to discover it was flawed in its design.
Although I won't spend a fortune on future book purchases, I will be more inclined to buy books like this one that help increase my basic knowledge of how things work.

The reviewer who says this is just another monochrome text book which isn't richly illustrated was right on the money. My review is this: The pictures are in black and white and drawn, the pages are so damn annoying to flip through as the paper is extremely fine and thin and hard to get a hold of. 2 subjects where this book does not cover is no mention of computers or the brain. What this book does mention does so in advanced grammar so the layman will find it hard to understand or comprehend what the author is saying and they will give up and try another subject of the book to find it's no different. All the positive reviews I find suspicious or maybe there all rocket scientists or brain surgeons. Stay the hell away from this book. I'm returning it even though I'll be losing half the money I spent, which is better than using this as a $16 paperweight.