The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey [Hardcover]

Roger Highfield (Author), Steve Dyer (Designer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1998

A witty, scientific investigation into all the rituals and icons of Christmas, from the Star in the East to jolly old Saint Nick--who, Dr. Highfield estimates, has just over two ten-thousandths of a second to get between each of the 842 million households he must visit on Christmas Eve. 25 illustrations. NPR sponsorship.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Roger Highfield loves science, and he loves Christmas, too. Combining the two in The Physics of Christmas is his attempt to refute the notion that "the materialist insights of science destroy our capacity to wonder, leaving the world a more boring and predictable place." To that end, Highfield presents an amusing, eclectic, and trivia-filled collection of scientific observations about one of the Western world's most beloved holidays.

Contrary to the title, Highfield doesn't limit himself to physics. His anthropological observations include tracing the origins of Santa Claus--an especially amusing and enlightening chapter entitled "Santa: The Hallucinogenic Connection" examines the possibilities of the psychoactive mushroom Amanita muscaria's red-and-white cap being the inspiration for Santa's robes. In a tip of the stocking cap to biology, Highfield hints at a parasitic infestation that may be responsible for poor Rudolph's red nose and examines the advantages of cloned Christmas trees. Psychologically speaking, we find an analysis of the emotional weight of gift giving and card exchanging (sever all relationships with those who send musical cards, research suggests), and how a holiday can be both religious and commercial. Even post-holiday depression is deconstructed, along with Santa's unhealthy obesity and apparent immortality, the effects of alcohol on sleep patterns, the astronomical origins of the Bethlehem star, and the ins and outs of snow.

You'll never look at the trappings of Christmas the same way after reading Highfield's seriously funny book. And you may accidentally learn something, too. --Therese Littleton

Review

...a delightful compendium of seasonal science.... Relying on the research of an eminent list of scholars from around the world, he endeavors to enrich our understanding of everything associated with the holiday, providing genuine insights as well as fanciful speculation. -- The New York Times Book Review, Simon Singh

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 293 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316366110
• ISBN-13: 978-0316366113
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,669,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roger Highfield was born in Wales, raised in north London and became the first person to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble. He has written seven books, sat on a few committees and was the science editor of The Daily Telegraph for two decades. Today, he is the Editor of New Scientist magazine, the global science and technology weekly.
To contact Roger, see www.rogerhighfield.com
Follow Roger on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rogerhighfield

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fact, science and speculation - all the stuff of Christmas!, December 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful gift book, even better to own (but it is clearly a seasonal read). The author is a scientist of wonderfully broad knowledge, and he puts all of it to work to examine and evaluate virtually all of the things that mean "Christmas" to the western world: from formulae for estimating the cooking time for a plum pudding, to the history and derivation of Santa, to why evergreens stay green, and beyond. Did you know, for example, that there are serious efforts to clone Christmas trees? Or that Santa's reindeer would only have had antlers at Christmas time if they were female, or castrated? The title is a little bit misleading - it is really the various sciences of Christmas, not limited to physics. This is a book for adults or teens - dense with information and fun. There is a wonderful bibliography, too, for further reading on specific subjects, and a helpful index. My only complaint is Rudolph's battery-powered blinking nose built into the hard cover, which not only raises the price of the book but results in a poor quality binding that is not durable. This book should be a "keeper", but the eccentric binding probably limits its life span. That is a shame.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very amusing book., November 17, 1999

By 

R. Jacob - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey (Hardcover)

The title is a bit misleading. This book is light on the physics while covering many other disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, chemistry (the author is a chemist), biology, and physiology. However, the broad range of topics keeps the reader's interest. The author was also able to keep everything on such a level that a reader with a minimal background in science can appreciate the book.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Physics of Christmas, February 25, 2000

By 

"blackjewel" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey (Hardcover)

The Physics of Christmas is a collection of short, bright essays that attempt to explain by means of science - not only physics, but very broadly defined to include anthropology, psychology and sociology as well chemistry and biology - all the wacky things people do during the holidays. No subject is too small for Highfield's enthusiastic scrutiny. He devotes one essay to the reasons Brussels sprouts are bitter; another to the architecture of snowflakes; yet another to the biology of reindeer.

Sampled in small doses, these essays can be fascinating. You may have some dim notion that Santa Claus harks back to St. Nicholas, a holy man from the coast of Turkey. It is less well known that some academics posit that his suit is red because people liked to ingest psychedelic toadstools - "the recreational and ritualistic drug of choice in parts of northern Europe before vodka was imported from the East." Santa's vivid robes, Highfield writes, are thought by some to "honor the red-and-white dot color scheme of this potent mind-altering mushroom." It will be a long time before I forget that the Lapps of northern Scandinavia - who pulverize reindeer horns and market the stuff as an aphrodisiac - actually have a genetic mutation rendering some of the men "unusually virile." Or that a cancer research organization has found that Christmas is the only meal of the year at which most British children eat sufficient amounts of vegetables.

But read more than one or two of Highfield's pieces at a time, and you may find yourself reaching anxiously for another egg nog. Highfield is an engaging writer, with an obvious and endearing passion for his subject. But what he has assembled in this pretty volume is an intimidating mountain of random scientific trivia. Taken as a whole, it is more exhausting than explanatory. Like Christmas cheer - "the fermentation of fruit and grain by the activity of fungi called yeasts" - The Physics of Christmas is enjoyable and delightful science for adults and teens.