One of the best classic physics learning guides.
Entertaining stories, instructive experiments, and interesting facts will teach a curious reader to notice the simplest physical phenomena and understand their nature.
Contents:
Author’s preface
Chapter one: A Bit of Mechanics
Edison’s Rock
From Moscow to Petersburg
From Earth to the Sun
Look inside a casting
Which metal is the heaviest?
Which metal is the lightest?
Two plows
Sauerkraut
A tractor and a horse
An awl and a punch
The pressure of a skyscraper
In a railcar
On a steamer
The road
Two coins
From old books
Up the slope
How they weighed the Earth
Jumps upward
Impact
An egg in a glass
An extraordinary break
Levers
Ticket vending machine
A gate and a spire
The Golden Rule of Mechanics
Machines of Archimedes
Horsepower and the horse’s work
More skillful than Columbus
Motion in a circle
Where is it easiest?
If the Earth rotated faster…
Compressing the globe
Ten whirligigs
A rocket flight
Chapter two: On Water and Under Water
Why do whales live in the sea?
What is “displacement”?
Like a submarine
Swimming in a heavy liquid
The cork problem
Scales under water
To avoid drowning
Waves and rocking
A bit of olden days
A floating needle
Surface film
The human super-lilliputian
Chapter three: On the Ocean of the Air’s Floor
How much does air weigh in a room?
How much air do you breathe?
How was the weight of air discovered for the first time?
The highest barometers
How much does all the air on Earth weigh?
How high is the Earth’s atmosphere?
A heavy newspaper
The mighty gust
Is it always easy to blow out a candle?
Why doesn’t it spill?
A diver’s bell
A person under water
In the ocean’s depths
Dry as water
Wind pressure
How do trains stop with air?
A parachute
Dust particles in the air
Paper boomerang
Air resistance
Old experiments with an airless space
Chapter four: Heat and Cold
Straightening a stone wall
Does snow warm?
Where to put a window vent?
How to air rooms in winter?
A twisting little serpent
The first hot-air balloon
Which firewood is more profitable?
Ice in a bottle
Cutting while keeping it intact
Why does a samovar sing?
Can you see steam?
Energy of water vapor
An invisible strongman in a cup of tea
What is yellow coal?
Chapter five: In the World of Sounds
Speed of sound
Transmission of sound
An imaginary bell
Power of sound
Who is louder?
Echo
Chapter six: Light and the Eye
A terrible shadow
How to measure the strength of light?
Head-down
An inverted pin
The riddle of our vision
First observations with a telescope
Shadow portraits
Ignition with ice
Three buttons
Four-sided figures
Which is bigger?
Illusions of sight on stage
In defiance of gravity
Visual illusions in nature
Chapter seven: Electric experiments
A charged comb
Electrical interaction
Repulsion
“Cat” electricity
Electric experiments with a newspaper
Sparks from your fingers
A obedient stick
Electricity in the mountains
Dancing paper rabbits
Snakes
Hair standing on end
A tiny lightning bolt
An experiment with a lamp
An experiment with a jet of water
Charged people