10 Best Physics of Mechanics Books

The perfect science baby gift for your future genius! The bestselling Baby University baby board book set includes educational books for toddlers written by an expert that features colorful, simple introductions to scientific principles for babies. Its approach to early learning is beloved by kids and grownups! Included in this Four-Book Set: * Quantum Physics for Babies * Rocket Science for Babies * General Relativity for Babies * Newtonian Physics for Babies This baby board book set is the perfect way to introduce basic scientific concepts and STEM to even the youngest scientist and makes a wonderful newborn baby gift! If you’re looking for other STEM-minded boss baby toys, books, and gifts, check out the full Baby University series, including ABCs of Biology , Organic Chemistry for Babies , and 8 Little Planets.

Have you ever tried to learn more about some incredible thing, only to be frustrated by incomprehensible jargon? Randall Munroe is here to help. In Thing Explainer, he uses line drawings and only the thousand (or, rather, “ten hundred”) most common words to provide simple explanations for some of the most interesting stuff there is, including: * food-heating radio boxes (microwaves) * tall roads (bridges) * computer buildings (datacenters) * the shared space house (the International Space Station) * the other worlds around the sun (the solar system) * the big flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates) * the pieces everything is made of (the periodic table) * planes with turning wings (helicopters) * boxes that make clothes smell better (washers and dryers) * the bags of stuff inside you (cells) How do these things work? Where do they come from? What would life be like without them? And what would happen if we opened them up, heated them up, cooled them down, pointed them in a different direction, or pressed this button? In Thing Explainer, Munroe gives us the answers to these questions and so many more. Funny, interesting, and always understandable, this book is for anyone–age 5 to 105–who has ever wondered how things work, and why.

This bestselling DIY handbook now features new and expanded projects, enabling ordinary folks to construct 16 awesome ballistic devices in their garage or basement workshops using inexpensive household or hardware store materials and this step-by-step guide. Clear instructions, diagrams, and photographs show how to build projects ranging from the simple match-powered rocket to the more complex tabletop catapult and the offbeat Cincinnati fire kite. The classic potato cannon has a new evil twin-the piezo-electric spud gun-and the electromagnetic pipe gun has joined the company of such favorites as the tennis ball mortar. With a strong emphasis on safety, the book also gives tips on troubleshooting, explains the physics behind the projects, and profiles scientists and extraordinary experimenters such as Alfred Nobel, Robert Goddard, and Isaac Newton. This book will be indispensable for the legions of backyard toy-rocket launchers and fireworks fanatics who wish every day was the fourth of July.

This revised edition of an extremely clear Navy training manual leaves nothing to be desired in its presentation. Thorough in its coverage of basic theory, from the lever and inclined plane to internal combustion engines and power trains, it requires nothing more than an understanding of the most elementary mathematics. Beginning with the simplest of machines — the lever — the text proceeds to discussions of the block and tackle (pulleys and hoists), wheel and axle, the inclined plane and the wedge, the screw, and different types of gears (simple, spur, bevel, herringbone, spiral, worm, etc.). A chapter on the concept of work discusses the measurement of work, friction, and efficiency; this is followed by investigations of power, force, and pressure, with explanations of the uses of scales, balances, gauges, and barometers. The fundamentals of hydrostatic and hydraulic machines (such as the hydraulic braking system and the hydraulic press) are discussed in detail. The remaining chapters cover machine elements (bearings and springs), basic mechanisms (gear differential, couplings, cams, clutches), the internal combustion engine and power trains (including explanations of various transmission systems — synchromesh, auxiliary, etc.). Every concept is clearly defined, and discussions always build easily from elementary theory to specific applications familiar to anyone with the slightest interest in mechanics. Important concepts, machine components, and techniques are clearly illustrated in more than 200 diagrams, drawings, and cross-sections that reveal inner workings — all of these help to clarify even further an already clear and well-organized presentation. Although it was originally designed for use in U.S. Naval Training Schools, this book can be used to great advantage as a basic text in mechanical engineering in standard technical schools, and it will be immensely valuable even to lay readers who desire a basic knowledge of mechanics.

Million-copy bestselling author of The Elements , Molecules , and Reactions Theodore Gray applies his trademark mix of engaging stories, real- time experiments, and stunning photography to the inner workings of machines, big and small, revealing the extraordinary science, beauty, and rich history of everyday things. Theodore Gray has become a household name among fans, both young and old, of popular science and mechanics. He’s an incorrigible tinkerer with a constant curiosity for how things work. Gray’s readers love how he always brings the perfect combination of know-how, humor, and daring-do to every project or demonstration, be it scientific or mechanical. In How Things Work he explores the mechanical underpinnings of dozens of types of machines and mechanisms, from the cotton gin to the wristwatch to an industrial loom. Filled with stunning original photographs in Gray’s inimitable style, How Things Work is a must-have exploration of stuff–large and small–for any builder, maker or lover of mechanical things.

The follow-up to his bestseller The War of Art, Turning Pro navigates the passage from the amateur life to a professional practice. “You don’t need to take a course or buy a product. All you have to do is change your mind.” –Steven Pressfield TURNING PRO IS FREE, BUT IT’S NOT EASY. When we turn pro, we give up a life that we may have become extremely comfortable with. We give up a self that we have come to identify with and to call our own. TURNING PRO IS FREE, BUT IT DEMANDS SACRIFICE. The passage from amateur to professional is often achieved via an interior odyssey whose trials are survived only at great cost, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. We pass through a membrane when we turn pro. It’s messy and it’s scary. We tread in blood when we turn pro. WHAT WE GET WHEN WE TURN PRO. What we get when we turn pro is we find our power. We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and live out.

A master teacher presents the ultimate introduction to classical mechanics for people who are serious about learning physics “Beautifully clear explanations of famously ‘difficult’ things,” — Wall Street Journal If you ever regretted not taking physics in college — or simply want to know how to think like a physicist — this is the book for you. In this bestselling introduction, physicist Leonard Susskind and hacker-scientist George Hrabovsky offer a first course in physics and associated math for the ardent amateur. Challenging, lucid, and concise, The Theoretical Minimum provides a tool kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace.

A preeminent physicist unveils a field-defining theory of the origins and purpose of life. Why are we alive? Most things in the universe aren’t. And everything that is alive traces back to things that, puzzlingly, weren’t. For centuries, the scientific question of life’s origins has confounded us. But in Every Life Is on Fire , physicist Jeremy England argues that the answer has been under our noses the whole time, deep within the laws of thermodynamics. England explains how, counterintuitively, the very same forces that tend to tear things apart assembled the first living systems. But how life began isn’t just a scientific question. We ask it because we want to know what it really means to be alive. So England, an ordained rabbi, uses his theory to examine how, if at all, science helps us find purpose in a vast and mysterious universe. In the tradition of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning , Every Life Is on Fire is a profound testament to how something can come from nothing.