The Velocity of Honey: And More Science of Everyday Life [Paperback]

Jay Ingram (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2006

Why does the journey to a new location always take longer than the trip home? What is the science behind the theory of "six degrees of separation?" Why doesn't honey flow out in all directions? In this delightful and amusing text, Jay Ingram explores the extraordinary science behind ordinary happenings. Ingram, host of the Discovery Channel Canada's "Daily Planet" and best-selling author of The Science of Everyday Life has written an engrossing work which broadens our knowledge of the everyday world and deepens our appreciation for the mysteries of science. Addressing a diverse set of topics and reaching unorthodox conclusions, he explores the science behind proverbial expressions, delves into the uncharted territory of the connection between history and the contemporary scientific world, and highlights mysterious links between the worlds of art and science.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Science can uncover the origins of the cosmos and the blueprints of life itself, but it can also explore some of the most inconsequential phenomena known to man. No less than three essays in this charming collection concern the spillage of breakfast foods, including the title piece on dripping honey and further investigations of why toast always falls with the buttered side down and why coffee stains are ring-shaped. Other topics probed by Ingram, host of the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet and author of The Science of Everyday Life, include the physics of coin-spinning, stone-skipping and paper-crumpling; the math talents of animals and infants; the six degrees of separation myth; and the cognitive psychology behind a range of desultory human capabilities, from catching a fly ball to working an ATM machine. Though the scientific theories Ingram unearths are fascinating, more hilarious is the disproportion between effort and importance, as with the elaborate experimental protocols scientists have developed to investigate the feeling people sometimes get of being watched. Ingram's deft, witty writing gives a real feel for science as a human process of trying to answer the questions, no matter how inane, that happen to get stuck in one's craw.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Jay Ingram is the author of several bestsellers, including Talk, Talk, Talk; The Science of Everyday Life; and The Burning House, which won the 1995 Canadian Science Writers Book Award. He has also written three children’s books and has hosted several radio documentary series, including Cranial Pursuits and The Talk Show.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560259116
• ISBN-13: 978-1560259114
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,777,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some fascinating "why is the sky blue" kid questions!, May 14, 2005

By 

Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Velocity of Honey: And More Science of Everyday Life (Hardcover)

Jay Ingram makes the science of everyday life accessible, fascinating and readable, answering many questions that we've puzzled over since our days as children - why does it always take longer to get there than it does to come home? how do outfielders catch those fly balls? and, just how do the mosquitoes always seem to find us? My personal favourite is a hilarious but perfectly reasonable explanation as to why we're convinced the eyes in that portrait on the wall follow us around the room!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Questions Rarely Asked, April 16, 2006

By 

J. Brian Watkins (Laie, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Velocity of Honey: And More Science of Everyday Life (Hardcover)

This was a wonderful little volume of essays on various scientific ideas buried in ordinary experience. Who would have thought to study echolocation in humans or that nagging feeling that time is going by faster and faster as we age? And what drove that Italian gentleman to pursue the answer to why stones can be made to skip on water? Frankly, the scientific aspect of the author's chosen subjects takes a clear second place to his simple expressions of wonder as to the diversity of ideas and scientific research; to the applicability of obscure research to the experience of everyday life. This kind of writing is important and relevant because it expands our understanding of the world in which we live. (I had no idea that the physics of curling were so complex and so little understood.) The author teaches his readers the value of asking the right questions and demonstrates that perhaps we don't quite understand our world as well as we think we do.

Perhaps it is just my inability to find the titles, yet I believe that there is a dearth of good writing such as this book--I applaud Mr. Ingram's efforts and hope that he is able to continue to find publishers. I have little patience for those who belittle the efforts of authors who attempt the exceedingly difficult task of communicating cutting-edge scientific principles to the general readership--not every book need be the top of its field. And how is an author to hone his craft if not by steady production of work each better than the last? I highly recommend Mr. Ingram's work and find his style to be excellently suited to convey the excitement of science.

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent, but not great., June 28, 2005

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Velocity of Honey: And More Science of Everyday Life (Hardcover)

Jay Ingram, The Velocity of Honey (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003)

There is a kind of niche genre in publishing that involves taking complicated science and stripping it of all its jargon to make it (somewhat) understandable to mortal men. Some authors are good at it. Some are great. The reigning king of "great," of course, is Martin Gardner (Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?), and thus it is that, in general, all books of "stripped-down science" will eventually get compared to Gardner. And thus, we come to Jay Ingram, whose The Velocity of Honey has been all the rage among in-the-know readers for the past year or so.

Jay Ingram is good. His short pieces do a capable job of taking controversial things that require numerous long, unintelligible equations to explain and phrasing it all in such a way that the great unwashed have a chance of grasping the science behind it all. And his topics are by and large interesting, such as the title essay, on why it is that honey does that whole bending-over-on-itself thing when you drizzle it onto your morning pancakes.

But good is not great. When you stack Ingram up against Gardner, Simon Singh (Fermat's Enigma), or Mitchell Waldrop (Complexity, one of the most underrated science books of the past decade), his prose just isn't as readable. And, really, that's what stripped-down science books are all about-- readability. If you wanted its lack, you could just read the relevant articles in dusty book-bound copies of magazines in your library's reference section, right?

It's worth picking up if you're into this sort of thing, but expect to spend far more time on it than you would a comparable tome by one of the greats. ** ½