Table of Contents

• FUN WITH MECHANICS.
• 1. The Magic Can.
• 2. How the Weak Become Strong (Structuring Materials).
• 3. Stepping on Eggs.
• 4. Thin and Fat Balloons.
• 5. Pierce Balloons without Popping Them.
• 6. Stretching Carrousel.
• 7. A Paper Saw?
• 8. Globe of Death.
• 9. Flattening the Earth at the Poles.
• 10. Wild Paints.
• 11. Astronaut in the Elevator.
• 12. Washing Machine: Water Extractor.
• 13. The Square Wheel and Others.
• 14. Balloon Rockets.
• 15. Rockets with Chemical and Air Propulsion.
• 16. Water Rockets.
• 17. Bouncing Balls.
• 18. Temperamental Pendulums.
• 19. Hypersensitive Rings.
• 20. Bed of Nails.
• 21. Bed of Rulers.
• 22. The Submarine.
• 23. Water Amplifier (Water Transistor).
• 24. Hydraulic Elevator.
• 25. Hydraulic Robots.
• 26. Drawbridges.
• 27. Circumventing Obstacles: How Air and Water Streams Find Their Way.
• 28. Juggling Balloons.
• 29. Air Streams on Top of Cars, Roofs, and Mountains.
• 30. Make Your Own Sprayer.
• 31. Wind Tunnel.
• 32. Unwanted Ball.
• 33. Outsmarting Friction (Flying Saucer).
• 34. Wheel That Rolls Uphill.
• 35. The Ballerina's Trick.
• 36. The Bicycle's Trick.
• 37. Accelerometer.
• 38. Raw or Hard-Boiled Egg.
• 39. Hand-Operated Water Pump (Archimedes' Screw).
• 40. Water Fountain.
• 41. How to Get on Top (Brazil Nut Effect).
• PLAYING WITH LIGHT: OPTICS.
• 1. Invisible Glass.
• 2. Decomposing Light into a Rainbow: 21st-Century Version of Newton's Classical Experiments.
• 3. Challenge Your Perception.
• 4. Moiré Patterns.
• 5. Lenses Made of Air and Water.
• 6. The Light at the End of the Tunnel.
• 7. The Ghost Behind the Mirror.
• 8. Levitation and Cubism with a Flat Mirror.
• 9. Magical Theater.
• 10. The Miracle of the Fishes: Parallel Mirrors.
• 11. Kaleidoscopes Festival.
• 12. Dark Chamber.
• 13. New Discoveries with Polarizers.
• 14. Why Is the Sky Blue?
• 15. Exploring the Laser Ray.
• 16. Tubes of Light: Fiber Optics.
• 17. Slow-Motion Camera.
• 18. Fractal Christmas.
• THE WORLD OF ATOMS AND OUR WORLD: COLD, HEAT, AND GIANT BUBBLES.
• 1. Jiggling Atoms.
• 2. Crushing Cans and Plastic Bottles.
• 3. Bending Laser Beams with Hot Air.
• 4. Steam Machine.
• 5. The Little Steamboat.
• 6. Burn Balloons Without Popping Them.
• 7. Air and Water Thermometers.
• 8. Full Balloon with End Open.
• 9. Invisible Hand.
• 10. Pneumatic Tire Valves.
• 11. Car in the Sun: Greenhouse Effect and Solar Heater.
• 12. Can Competition: Which Heats Up and Cools Down Faster?
• 13. Fog-Proof Mirrors.
• 14. Tying a Knot in a Stream of Water.
• 15. Soap Saddles? You Are Joking!
• 16. Racquets and Tennis Balls Made of Soap.
• 17. Flexible s.
• 18. Two-Dimensional Vortex.
• 19. Pass Through a Soap Film Without Popping It.
• 20. Non-Cutting Scissors.
• 21. Gigantic Soap Bubbles and Films.
• 22. Speeding Up Water Droplets.
• 23. Liquid Climbers.
• 24. Whirlpools (3D Vortices).
• 25. Outlets Clogged with Water.
• 26. Forcing an Egg Out of the Shell.
• PLAYING WITH SOUNDS: ACOUSTICS.
• 1. Telephone with a Wire.
• 2. Scratching Made Louder.
• 3. When Is a Pipe a Bell?
• 4. Tick-Tock of the Clock.
• 5. Wireless Telephone: Parabolic Acoustic Mirrors.
• 6. Focusing Sound.
• 7. Home-Made Variable-Pitch Whistle.
• 8. Sounds of Paper.
• 9. Secrets of the Guitar.
• 10. Singing Hose.
• 11. From Lungs to Mouth.
• 12. Pictures of Sounds.
• ELECTRIFYING EXPERIMENTS: ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM.
• 1. Sticking Balloons on Walls: Static Electricity.
• 2. Making Water Detour.
• 3. Wireless Lamp.
• 4. Salt Water Turns into Gas: Electrolysis.
• 5. Electric Gates: Thermal Relays.
• 6. Electric Hoist: Electromagnets.
• 7. Chaotic Pendulum.
• 8. Painting Pictures with an Electric Hoist.
• 9. Electric Motor.
• 10. Crazy Toboggan: Electromagnetic Braking.
• 11. Magnetic Levitation.
• 12. Silent Radio.
• 13. Car Control Versus TV Control.
• Patterns for Fun with Mechanics, Experiment 13: The Square Wheel and Others.
• Patterns for Playing with Light: Optics, Experiment 3: Challenge Your Perception.
• Index.

About the Author

About the Author Eduardo de Campos Valadares received his doctorate in physics from the Brazilian Center for Physical Research in Rio de Janeiro in 1987 and did postdoctoral research at Sao Paulo University (1987--1990) and at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom (1990--1993). Since 1993, he has been with the Physics Department of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, one of the major Brazilian universities. Valadares has published over 60 papers in different areas of condensed matter physics, physics education, and the popularization of science. His first book is a translation of work by the German poet Stefan George (Iluminuras, Sao Paulo, 2000), followed by Fisica mais que divertida (UFMG University Press, 2000, 2nd edition, 2002), launched in Germany in 2003 by Aulis Verlag Deubner (Spass mit Physik) and now in the United States by Prentice Hall (the American edition, Physics, Fun, and Beyond, is enlarged with over 40 new projects and includes comments on all experiments). He also published in Brazil a biography of Isaac Newton (Odysseus Editora, 2003), illustrated with low-cost experiments highlighting Newton's ideas. Valadares is co-author of an introductory book on nanotechnology targeted at secondary school teachers, a joint publication of the Brazilian Physical Society and Editora Livraria da Fisica (2005). In 2001 he received the State Prize Francisco the Assis Magalhaes Gomes for his contributions to popularization of science and technology in Brazil. He is also the president of the Youth Science Foundation Brazil. Valadares loves playing with his three children, who deeply inspire him, and to contemplate the world from the top of the mountains surrounding his home. A(c) Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.