Category: Physics with Emmy

Why Every Dog Should Love Quantum Physics 6: Superconductors

If you’re still not sure whether you should be teaching physics to your dog, here’s another good reason: Superconductors. The “super” in “superconductor” refers to the fact that these materials conduct electric current with absolutely zero resistance, better than the best ordinary metals. This has obvious applications in the green technology field (which dogs should… Continue reading Why Every Dog Should Love Quantum Physics 6: Superconductors

Quantization of Books 3: How Many Books Is That?

When I saw the data generated by the sales rank tracker Matthew Beckler was kind enough to put together, I joked that I hoped to someday need a logarithmic scale to display the sales rank history of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. Thanks to links from Boing Boing, John Scalzi, and Kevin Drum,… Continue reading Quantization of Books 3: How Many Books Is That?

Move Over, Schrödinger’s Cat

A couple of quick book-related items that I can’t resist posting, even while on vacation: First, the sales rank cracked the top 500 on Amazon last night, peaking at 396. I don’t know if this is just a matter of relative sales volume being low, or what, but it’s a huge kick all the same.… Continue reading Move Over, Schrödinger’s Cat

Local Bookstore Report

Not that I’m obsessed, or anything (current Amazon rank: 1106), but here are the results from my incomplete survey of local book stores regarding How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Barnes & Noble: “Out of Stock” in all local stores. Has never been in stock, really. Borders in Crossgates Mall: “Likely in store” according… Continue reading Local Bookstore Report

You Don’t Really Understand a Subject Until You Teach It To Your Dog

I’m typing this from the local Barnes and Noble, waiting for the dealership next door to finish changing my oil and inspecting my car. Sadly, they don’t have How to Teach Physics to Your Dog on the shelves in their (rather small) science section. Grump, grump, grump. The disappointment at not immediately finding it on… Continue reading You Don’t Really Understand a Subject Until You Teach It To Your Dog

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Is Out Today!

Today is the official publication date for How to Teach Physics to your Dog! I’ve got another reason or two why dogs should love quantum physics that I’ll probably post later, but if the ones posted so far haven’t sold you on the book, how about a really nice review from Cory Doctorow at Boing… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Is Out Today!

Why Every Dog Should Love Quantum Physics 5: Sunlight

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog goes on sale in fine bookstores everywhere tomorrow. But maybe the four previous posts explaining why dogs should care about quantum physics haven’t yet convinced you to go buy a copy. So here’s another reason, one appropriate to this solstice season, when dogs in the Northern Hemisphere will… Continue reading Why Every Dog Should Love Quantum Physics 5: Sunlight

Quantization of Books 2: What Does One Sale Get You?

I’ve been playing around with the spiffy sales rank tracker Matthew Beckler wrote, because I’m a great big dork, and enjoy playing with graphs. Here’s a graph of the sales rank vs. time through 2pm EST today (plotted in Excel from the data table at the bottom of the page): As I noted in my… Continue reading Quantization of Books 2: What Does One Sale Get You?

Great Moments in Vanity Searching -or- The Hotness of Physics

I was Googling for “How to Teach Physics to Your Dog” last night, to check whether a review of said book that I know is coming has been posted yet (side question: Does anybody know a good way to exclude the umpty-zillion versions of Amazon and other sellers from this sort of search? Most of… Continue reading Great Moments in Vanity Searching -or- The Hotness of Physics