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How to Dunk a Doughnut: The Science of Everyday Life
by Len Fisher
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Arcade Publishing (2003-10-15)
ISBN: 1559706805
EAN: 9781559706803
Dewy Decimal #: 500
Hardcover: 256 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: BX007-060821008
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Clean and shiny. Very light dustcover wear, not pricecut. Pgs crisp, clean, tight, unmarked. No remainder mark.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Scientists are in the business of trying to understand the world. Exploring commonplace phenomena, they have uncovered some of Nature's deepest laws. We can in turn apply these laws to our own lives, to better grasp and enhance our performance in daily activities as varied as cooking, home improvement sports-even dunking a doughnut! This book makes the science of the familiar a key to opening the door for those who want to know what scientists do, why they do it, and how they go about it. Following the routine of a normal day, from coffee and breakfast to shopping, household chores, sports, a drink, supper, and a bath, we see how the seemingly mundane can provide insight into the most profound scientific questions. Some of the topics included are the art and science of dunking, how to boil an egg, how to tally a supermarket bill, the science behind hand tools, catching a ball, or throwing a boomerang, the secrets of haute cuisine, bath (or beer) foam, and the physics of sex.
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Customer Reviews
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Not as enthusiastic as the others
Rating  (4)
Date: 2006-04-22
3 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book didn't work for me as well as it apparently did for others. I do think that it succeeds handily at two important things: showing how science is involved in everyday things, and showing that while we tend to think of science as an ivory-tower exercise for super-geniuses, much of science is actually a process involving intuition, experimentation, collaboration, persistence and luck that any reasonably intelligent person can contribute to if they are interested.
My problem with the book is that parts of what he talks about just didn't hold my interest well, e.g. How To Add Up A Supermarket Bill and The Art And Science Of Dunking. And Catch As Catch Can left me thinking that surely what happens in the human brain is quite different from the complex sort of computation he talks about.
I did like parts of the book, but I liked the book "The Secret House" better (although perhaps it is unfair to compare them because "The Secret House" does not dive so deeply into any topic).
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Anecdotes tell of science's applicability to people
Rating  (5)
Date: 2004-11-09
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dr. Fisher was award an IgNobel Prize in 1999 for his work on the physics of cookie dunking, and his How To Dunk A Doughnut extends his research into the everyday world in an effort to relate science to everyday life. Anecdotes tell of science's applicability to people, from beer foam and the meaning of life to chewing and its relationship to perceptions of taste. Even the most reluctant science reader will find these vignettes compelling reading.
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A pleasure to read
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-02-14
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
It is very rare to find an author who writes with such enthusiasm about their subject, particularly in this kind of field. The information isn't just presented in a factual way, it is made into interesting accounts of the author's (sometimes failed) experiments, that can be related to tribulations of everyday life, such as knowing when the Sunday roast is cooked! As a student, I found this book very interesting and worthy of the highest praise.
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Pepper and Handsprings
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-12-08
As a non-science oriented person, I found myself skipping around in this book, skimming parts about claw hammers and boomerangs, but reading the entire chapter on supermarket bills. Frankly, that doughnut on the cover got my attention, and the fact that I had just heard about the Ignobel Prize on the radio, which the author of this book won several years ago.
I enjoyed the chapter on The Physics of Sex, but had to read the notes to find out why a woman taking the antidepressant clomipramine supplemented her dosage with pepper. (You'll have to read it yourself, I don't want Amazon removing my review!)
In addition to making science more accessible, Fisher makes scientists seem more human. He describes colleagues of his reacting to successes by singing, shouting, and one who removed all his clothes and did a series of handsprings. Now that is a happy scientist.
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The scientific mind at work .... and loving it
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-05-12
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
With an enthusiasm that is clearly contagious, the author applies scientific reasoning and methodology to better understand certain things in everyday life that we may take for granted. Topics that are examined under the microscope of the author's sharp and witty mind include: the science of cooking, the scientific principles behind tool usage, boomerang design and throwing, quick determination the cheapest supermarket, the physics of sex, and more. The author's excitement in describing his scientific approach to these matters stands out - much as an excited child describing the joys of discovering something new and wonderful, but in a clear, lucid, even funny, way. Complete with lots of diagrams and charts, this book is pleasure to read. The author has definitely succeeded in clearly illustrating how the scientific method and the scientific mind work, and all this in a most enjoyable way.
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