Mechanics is the branch of physics that deals with forces and movement. Aligned to the science curriculum, this stimulating volume explores topics such as measurement, mass and weight, falling objects, force and acceleration, stability and equilibrium, energy, vectors and scalars, work and power, loads and levers, inclines and friction, and pulleys and gears. Nine projects help readers grasp a key scientific principle, such as cheating the force of gravity, inertia, and centripetal force. ...

Understanding the basics of matter is a core piece of the science curriculum. This guide to matter is an interesting, colorful introduction to these concepts in the field of science, including bright photos, fun facts, and basic experiments that allow readers to have an informative and complete hands-on learning experience. Biographical information on some of the great minds in this field of science is also included, adding a detailed timeline and an interesting and engaging historical ele...

We often automatically equate heat with temperature to such a degree that we may not take the time to consider what heat really is. Heat refers to the energy that is transferred from one body to another that is at a lower temperature. This transfer occurs often without us knowing it, but it is ever-present and crucial to all life. This volume examines the basics of heat and the related concept of temperature. Detailed diagrams help illustrate such concepts as specific heat capacity and lat...

Though we take light for granted, the world's greatest scientists have long puzzled over its nature, properties, and behavior. Its incredible speed, mysterious frequency, relationship to color, form of travel, and uncanny ability to reflect, refract, diffract, and be absorbed altogether make light the ever-elusive quarry of science's greatest hunters of knowledge and understanding. This is the enthralling account of their investigations and discoveries, their conclusive insights and ongoin...

Electricity might seem like a modern convenience that provides us with light, heat, communications, and power, but readers will learn about the history of electricity, from its ancient discovery to the present. The text includes a full chapter extolling the important contributions by the one and only Benjamin Franklin and a handy timeline for visual reinforcement. In this instructive volume, readers learn how electricity is produced, whether it’s simple static electricity, bolts of lightni...

An ancient Chinese proverb suggests, "They are wise parents who give their children roots and wings – and a map."Maps That Changed the World features some of the world's most famous maps, stretching back to a time when cartography was in its infancy and the 'edge of the world' was a barrier to exploration. The book includes details of how the Lewis and Clark Expedition helped map the American West, and how the British mapped India and Australia. Included are the beautifull...

"Variably genial, cautionary, lyrical, admonitory, terrifying, horrifying and inspiring…A lifetime of thought, travel, reading, imagination and memory inform this affecting account." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Blending history and anecdote, geography and reminiscence, science and exposition, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester tells the breathtaking saga of the Atlantic Ocean in a masterful work of narrative nonfiction. A gifted storyteller and...

What was the Minotaur? Did a Welsh prince discover America? Did Robin Hood really exist? How does the Star of Bethlehem fit into the science of astronomy? Is the Vinland Map a fake? Can archaeologists use spirit messages to guide their work?For centuries, philosophers, scientists, and charlatans have attempted to decipher the baffling mysteries of our past, from the Stonehenge to the lost continent of Atlantis. Today, however, DNA testing, radiocarbon dating, and other cutting-edge...

Fresh, exciting and vividly readable, this is popular history at its very best.Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents and old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey, political journalist Andrew Marr revisits some of the traditional epic stories, from classical Greece and Rome to the rise of Napoleon, but surrounds them with less familiar material, from Peru to the Ukraine, China to th...

In 1795 three boys discovered the top of an ancient shaft on uninhabited Oak Island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. The boys began to dig, and what they uncovered started the world's greatest and strangest treasure hunt but nobody knows what the treasure is. Two hundred years of courage, back-breaking effort, ingenuity, and engineering skills have failed to retrieve what is concealed there.Theories of what the treasure could be include Captain Kidd's bloodstained pirate gold, an army p...

Atlantis and Other Lost Worlds is the most up-to-date and comprehensive investigation of history's infamous sunken city. Nowhere else will you find a more dramatic and convincing presentation of the evidence for its archaeological reality. The book uncovers the scientific genius of the ancients and the spiritual power of their mysterious religion. They are revealed as the inventors of a crystal technology to surpass our own, and the master builders of pyramidal monuments around th...

The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic volcanic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth’s most dangerous volcano — Krakatoa.The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa — the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic natural disaster — was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty...