User:BCornine/sandbox

WORK IN PROGRESS - STILL BEING EDITED
Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities by Christopher Jargodzki and Franklin Potter (2001, published by John Wiley and Sons) is a book of 397 provocative puzzles and intuition-defying solutions, covering everything from mechanics, electricity, magnetism, and optics to the physics of sports, space exploration, and astronomy. The questions range from simple to bang-your-head-against-the-wall hard. For example,


 * -Why do professional race drivers accelerate when going around a curve?
 * -Why is there eight times more ice in Antarctica than in the Arctic?
 * -Why is the full moon about nine times brighter than a half-moon even though its lit area is only twice as large?
 * -Why can you warm your hands by blowing gently and cool your hands by blowing hard?
 * -Why are the tallest mountains on Mars much taller than ours even though Mars is only about half the Earth's size?

An extensive set of marginalia is provided, including jokes, anecdotes, offbeat scientific facts, and unusual quotations ranging from Einstein on the sensation of the mystical to Bugs Bunny on the law of gravity. For example,


 * -Isaac Newton spent years trying to date the world's end. He leaned toward 1948.
 * -An inscription on the wall of a restroom at Princeton University: 2 + 2 = 5 for large values of 2.
 * -The first prize offered for communication with extraterrestrials was announced in 1900, but Mars was excluded because it was felt that
 * contact with the Martians would be too easy.

A very detailed 7-page index is also included.

From the preface: "Solutions and more than three hundred references are provided and constitute about two-thirds of the book. [M]ost of the puzzles contain an element of surprise. Indeed, the clash between commonsense conjecture and physical reasoning is the central theme that runs through this volume. Einstein characterized common sense as the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen, and we agree: At least in science, common sense is to be refined and often transcended rather than venerated. The present volume tries to undermine physical preconceptions employing paradoxes (from the Greek para and doxes, meaning 'beyond belief') to create cognitive dissonance. 'Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.' We believe that far from being merely amusing, paradoxes are uniquely effective in addressing specific deficiencies in understanding (cf. Daniel W. Welch, 'Using paradoxes.' American Journal of Physics 48 [1980]: 629-632)."

Reception and Reviews
Physicist Peter Ford (University of Bath, UK) described Mad About Physics as a "fascinating new book." He wrote that "many of its problems will be useful for teachers, both at senior level in schools and at universities, for discussion with students in small groups. Such tutorials should be used to encourage students to start talking about physics and "'thinking like a physicist'."

Astronomer Carol Ryback wrote, "Here's a quick fix for those brain-teasing inquiries that stick in your mind like an old song. While not limited to astronomy-related trivia, Mad About Physics - like a top-40 countdown on the radio - has an allure that makes you want more.

In 2002, Mad About Physics was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the best titles of the year 2001 in the teen books and media category.

Mad About Physics was translated into seven languages, including German, Greek, Japanese, and Chinese.

Encyclopedia of Conversational English
Christopher Jargocki founded the website in November 2013. From the welcome page: "We hope that the Encyclopedia of Conversational English will become a standard reference and/or text for students and teachers of English as a Second Language, both in the United States and around the world. In addition, due to its comprehensive scope and an attempt at completeness, the work should provide a goldmine of data for linguists, lexicographers, translators, and all aficionados of the current idiom..."

In a sense, the Encyclopedia may be viewed as a time capsule describing the language and culture of the United States and Great Britain as they have existed in the last 15-20 years. The goal is to do for higher-order language components, i.e., sentences and dialogues, what the Oxford English Dictionary has done for lower-order language components, namely words.

Currently, the project comprises two volumes, Communication and Education, containing more than 2600 webpages. Volumes dealing with Daily Life and Transportation are forthcoming.