Why Can't Elephants Jump?
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What's the storage capacity of the human brain in gigabytes? What's the farthest point on land from the sea? Why is frozen milk yellow? And why do flamingos stand on one leg?
Product Description
Well, why not? Is it because elephants are too large or heavy (after all, they say hippos and rhinos can play hopscotch)? Or is it because their knees face the wrong way? Or do they just wait until no one's looking? Read this brilliant new compilation to find out. This is popular science at its most absorbing and enjoyable. That is why the previous titles in the New Scientist series have been international bestsellers and sold over two million copies between them. Like Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005), Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? (2006) and Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? (2008), this is another wonderful collection of wise, witty and often surprising answers to a staggering range of science questions, from 'why is frozen milk yellow?' to 'what's the storage capacity of the human brain in gigabytes?'.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Facts and Thoughts,
This review is from: Why Can't Elephants Jump?: and 113 more science questions answered: And 113 Other Tantalising Science Questions (Paperback)
I enjoyed this - lots of facts I have always wondered about, though I have only looked at some - and some I find the explanations a bit challenging.
A really good pair of books if you are wanting to buy someone a present would be this with Peter Cave's Do Llamas Fall in Love?: 33 Perplexing Philosophy Puzzles That gets you thinking for yourself more as well as being lots of fun. Facts with this - and not fiction with Llamas, but thoughts with Llamas to discuss. I'm still unsure about the right answer to the llama question and not always all that clear about some of the scientific facts. Good features of both. Excellent buys together for your student offspring - solves my problem for some presents anyway!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why can't elephants jump?,
By
This review is from: Why Can't Elephants Jump?: and 113 more science questions answered: And 113 Other Tantalising Science Questions (Paperback)
Bought this book as a stocking filler for my grown up son. He was pleased to receive an easy-read book (usually reading for study puposes)and will now be boring us with his new knowledge of fascinating facts. Suitable for wide age range.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting book, but be careful when buying for young thinkers!,
By Jonathan (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Why Can't Elephants Jump? (Kindle Edition)
Why can't elephants jump? is the follow up to last years excellent Do polar bears get lonely. The books follow the same basic premise; questions sent in to the New Scientist ( A scientific magazine) are answered by fellow readers and the best answer(s) got published.
I think the editor of the book has once again done a sterling job in only picking those questions which a) The average joe can understand (including me!) and b) are both interesting and sometimes perplexing before you read the answer. The answers, on a whole, are also highly informative and you really get the feeling that they are not holding back on the science, providing an accurate, and often lucid, response. However, while a solid 4/5 book, I have two main criticisms. The first one is that often, more than one explanation is given to a question. This would not bother me usually, as it means that the question was probably so difficult and/or interesting, that the editors had to pick out more than one decent answer. BUT, sometimes these answers seem rather different from each other, and apart from the rare exception, no editor comment etc is given to say which is the correct, or more accurate one. The second minor criticism is that while it's great that the answerers can use complex language, often the average reader can get bogged down in scientific process names without consulting a dictionary or just skipping the word. Most people would be able to understand the majority of the book, just a word of warning if you have an inquisitive youngster who wants this book, or others in the series, the language and general prose *WILL* quite often be complex enough for most adults to scratch their heads! However, for most readers this really is a small issue, and with an amazing breadth of questions, as well as some great answers, I still highly recommend this book as well as well as all its siblings. (There are four books in the series, and judging by the high positions each of them as held on the booksellers list and the endless amount of questions possible for this crazy world, I suspect there will be a few more in the future!) I have the kindle edition, and for those looking for a cheap book to buy for your kindle, I would recommend it. The paragraphs are very well laid out and the overall structure is perfect, no poor formatting here!
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