The great thing about using Google to vanity search for articles about How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, or at least one of the great things about it, is that it’s world-wide. Thus, this Dutch roundup of new books, which includes mine. This is what they have to say:
Een erg geestig boek is ‘How to Teach Physics to Your Dog’. Chad Orzel gebruikt scenarios uit de echte wereld om kwantummechanica uit te leggen. Dit doet hij dankzij conversaties met zijn hond Emmy. De leuke gesprekken zorgen er voor dat veel vragen worden opgelost over kwantummechanica. Het boek is niet voor de absolute beginner en ook niet voor de gevorderde fysicus: het is perfect voor lezers die al kaas hebben gegeten van natuurkunde. Het boek krijgt veel hoge beoordelingen op Amazon.com. Een leuk verjaardagscadeau voor een ander, of voor jezelf.
Of course, as I am not Dutch, I had to plug this into Google translator, which yielded the assessment that the book is “Perfect for readers who already have eaten cheese in physics.”
I realize that’s almost certainly a stupidly literal translation of some Dutch idiom, but I just love that phrase. Emmy thinks it’s pretty great, too, as she’d be happy to eat cheese in physics. Or anywhere else, really.
Hello, in order to improve the image of chemistry in the world, you can find something about a petition which could interest you in the top right-hand corner at the following address: http://eternal-cartesian.blogspot.com/ . Sincerely for a better world
My translation:
A very diverting book is “How to teach physics to your dog”. Chad Orzel uses scenarios from the real world to explain quantum mechanics. He does this thanks to[sic] conversations with his dog Emmy. The entertaining conversations solve many questions about quantum mechanics. The book isn’t for the absolute beginner, and not for the advanced physicist either: it’s perfect for people who already have some knowledge of physics. The book gets many high ratings on Amazon.com. A nice birthday present for someone else, or for yourself.
Note: the idiom “ergens geen kaas van hebben gegeten”, “not having eaten cheese off of something”, is usually used only in the negative and means “having no knowledge of/experience with a subject”.
It’s not to be confused with “having someone eat the cheese off your bread”, meaning let them take your due. For obvious reasons, idioms featuring cheese are quite common in the Dutch language.
(I’m intrigued by the language on that site, as it is a rather unique linear combination of high-level idiom and glaring grammatical errors.)
Cheese can’t get lost in translation. 🙂