Includes bibliographical references and index.

How's your math? -- The traffic light dilemma -- Energy from moving air -- Drag racing and (some) space station physics -- Merry-go-round physics and the tides -- Energy from moving water -- Using vectors to avoid a bad hair day -- An illuminating problem -- How to measure the depth of a deep, dark hole in the ground with a stopwatch -- Solving the preface challenge problems -- The physics of stacking books and of chain reactions -- Communication satellite physics -- Walking a ladder upright -- Why is the sky dark at night? -- How some things float (or don't) -- A reciprocating problem -- How to catch a baseball (or not) -- Tossing balls and shooting bullets up-hill -- Rapid travel in a great circle transit tube -- Hurtling your body through space -- The path of a punt -- Easy ways to measure gravity in your garage -- Epilogue -- Newton's gravity calculation mistake.

Physics can explain many of the things that we commonly encounter. It can tell us why the night is dark, what causes the tides, and even how best to catch a baseball. With In Praise of Simple Physics, popular math and science writer Paul Nahin presents a plethora of situations that explore the science and math behind the wonders of everyday life. Roaming through a diverse range of puzzles, he illustrates how physics shows us ways to wring more energy from renewable sources, to measure the gravity in our car garages, to figure out which of three light switches in the basement controls the light bulb in the attic, and much, much more.

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