We’re six days into the DonorsChoose challenge, and at the time of this writing, ten people have contributed just over $1,700 to the Uncertain Principles challenge entry. That’s an impressive average, and I thank you all for your generosity. I also offered a number of incentives, and Lauren Uroff is claiming one: I’d like to… Continue reading DonorsChoose Payoff: Duality and Self-Promotion
Category: Book Writing
Publishers Weekly on How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
In this week’s issue of Publishers Weekly there’s a short review (scroll down) of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog (which will be released December 22): How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Chad Orzel. Scribner, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4165-7228-2 What do dog treats and chasing squirrels have to do with quantum mechanics? Much… Continue reading Publishers Weekly on How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
Early Review of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
One of the photo caption contest winners, Nick O’Neill, has finished his galley proof, and posted an early review of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Casual physics intro books are quite possibly the hardest subgenre of physics books to write. Textbooks and further upper-level reading have expectations both of what you already know… Continue reading Early Review of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
Ask a Physicist’s Dog
The scheduled release of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is three months from today. This is, as you most likely know, a book based on the frequent conversations Emmy and I have about physics: To mark the pre-anniversary, Emmy has decided to use social media to showcase her physics knowledge: She’s answering physics… Continue reading Ask a Physicist’s Dog
The Festival Circuit
I got email a couple of weeks ago asking if I’d be interested in appearing at the Empire State Book Festival in Albany next April. While I recognize intellectually that I will be an Actual Published Author by that time, this still feels sort of weird. Anyway, it’s in Albany, so of course I said… Continue reading The Festival Circuit
Even the Queen
“So what do I need to do, again?” “First, you have to pick a username. So people know who you are.” “OK. How about ‘Emmy the Magnificent, Queen of Niskayuna and Surrounding Regions.’ That should do the job.” “Ah, no. That’s 64 characters. Nobody would ever reply to you with a username that long. How… Continue reading Even the Queen
Change Estimation and the Wisdom of Crowds
The results of the estimation contest are in. There were 164 serious entries (I excluded the $12,000 and $1,000,000 “guesses” from the final data). The mean value guessed by commenters was $83.30, and the median was not far off, at $77.12. The standard deviation was high– $43.10– but as you would expect with a large… Continue reading Change Estimation and the Wisdom of Crowds
Estimation Contest: Guess the Total, Win a Book
This wooden box sits on top of my dresser, and every afternoon when I come home, I dump the change from my pockets into it. It’s getting close to full, as you can see: I’ve got a couple of extra galley proofs kicking around, so here’s a contest: Guess the total dollar value of the… Continue reading Estimation Contest: Guess the Total, Win a Book
Book Report: Blurb-tastic
A cosmologist, a science writer, three best-selling science fiction authors, a best-selling mystery novelist, and a Nobel laureate walk into a bar– Oh, wait, that’s not the opening to a joke. That’s the list of people who have provided blurbs for my book… Kind of an eclectic bunch, but I’m pretty psyched. I’m not quite… Continue reading Book Report: Blurb-tastic
Physics for Dragons
One of our poetry contest winners has been reading his proof copy of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, and posted some comments. Actually, it was posted last week, but I was at Worldcon, and not dealing with much of anything else. The comments are pretty positive, but he asks a couple of questions… Continue reading Physics for Dragons