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    Unavailable
    The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey
    Unavailable
    The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey
    Unavailable
    The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey

    Written by Roger Highfield

    Narrated by Gerard Doyle

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Can reindeer fly? Why is Santa Claus fat? Could scientists clone the perfect Christmas tree? Was the Star of Bethlehem really a comet? Why is Rudolph's nose red? How does Santa manage to deliver presents to an estimated 842 million households in a single night? What could we do to guarantee a white Christmas every year?

    These are among the questions explored in an irresistibly witty book that illuminates the cherished rituals, legends, and icons of Christmas from a unique and fascinating perspective: science.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateNov 5, 2002
    ISBN9780739304747
    Unavailable
    The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey
    Author

    Roger Highfield

    ROGER HIGHFIELD, Ph.D. (Co-Writer) is the Editor of New Scientist magazine, which is now the world’s biggest selling weekly science and technology magazine. He has written/coauthored six popular science books, two of which have been bestsellers, including After Dolly, The Science of Harry Potter, The Physics of Christmas, The Private Lives of Albert Einstein, and Frontiers of Complexity. His most recent work was as the outside editor on genomic researcher J. Craig Venter's autobiography, A Life Decoded, published in November, 2007 (Viking, US; Allen Lane, UK) .

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    Reviews for The Physics of Christmas

    3.5/5

    49 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Everything you could ever want to know (and more) about possible identities for the Star of Bethlehem, mechanisms for virgin birth, the psychology of giving, the properties of snow and many other Christmas related subjects.
    • 5/5
      Amusing account of the science behind our cherished Christmas traditions.
    • 5/5
      I liked this book a lot. Of course, some parts were more interesting than others.

      It explored all sorts of (mostly British and American) traditions in great detail. It was not at all limited to physics, but also took in the history, chemistry, and biology of various aspects of Christmas. The history reminded me of the little book I read for my Christmas book the year before last – 4000 Years of Christmas, but this author emphasized different aspects of the many pre-Christian myths that have influenced the Christmas traditions.

      There is so much else in here too, everything from the development of the Christmas card to how to cook a turkey (also how to cook a plum pudding), and the formation of snowflakes.
    • 3/5
      Some sections were stronger than others. I wish it weren't titled 'The Physics of' because there's a lot of biology and pschology etc. in there, too. A lot of speculation, too. Interesting, though, mostly. No narrative to keep it flowing - read it in the bits it's structured into for best effect.
    • 3/5
      Imagine a collection of journal abstracts collected along loosely associated theme lines and you have the making of this book. In other words - a great collection of factoids but not much of a story. This book is broken up into 12 chapters and two appendices (which seem to have been tacked on arbitrarily). Each chapter supposedly focuses on a Christmas related element e.g. The Bethlehem Star, Miracle, Snow (which touched on a pet peeve of mine i.e. while USA, Europe, China and Russia are freezing their butts off in December us folks down South are in the midst of Summer - but this distinction never seems to cross this and many other author's minds). In any event while each chapter does cover material related to it's title, the author also takes extreme poetic licence to cover just about anything else there after (which isn’t covered in any of the other chapters) e.g. in the Giving and Shopping chapter he goes on a self confessed diversion about the theory of lost socks! Towards the end of the book you can hardly turn a page without seeing a reference to at least one academic institute, two papers and three researchers (and perhaps the odd lab mouse/rat/worm) which leads to very tedious reading. That said however, I did learn some interesting things but wouldn't recommend this book for your casual reading list.