How to Save the World with Salad Dressing: and Other Outrageous Science Problems Paperback – Illustrated, 1 Oct. 2011

entertainment as well as knowledgeble

A great follow up book to "How to win at Russian Roulette ". Great characters lead you through the web of mental challenges. A book you need to read, mull over, put down, think again and with a bit of help along the way- find the solutions to some very interesting and thought prevoking problems.A great gift for anyone young or old who likes a mental challenge

An excellent book if you like either science, maths or brainteasers, and especially if you like all three! However, this is more than just a puzzle book. The science-themed problems are delivered via hilarious narrative involving numerous amusing characters and outlandish scenarios. With varying levels of difficulty, the riddles offer a challenge to readers of all backgrounds (science or otherwise), which, combined with a supremely sharp-witted writing style, make this an incredibly fun adventure story that you simply won't be able to put down. You'll find yourself wracking your brains one second and laughing out loud the next! A great follow up to the authors' previous book, 'How to win at Russian Roulette'.

I was a fan of the authors first book so picked this up as soon as it was available. It lived up to the standards set by the first. It takes the focus away from logic puzzles and onto science puzzles. I hadn't studied science since GCSE so was a little wary, but the book is set up in such a way that this doesn't really matter. A basic guide at the beginning guided me through and the rest was the same reasoning skills as used in the first book.The characters are still wacky and good fun - although it's more of a spin off than a sequel in the plot sense - and they provide a great backdrop to the puzzles to keep you engaged even when you're screaming at the walls unable to solve a puzzle.

At one point the authors assert that aeroplanes 'fly using a different method' from one explained by newtons laws!! Normally using this explanation (air is psychic so knows that the top route will have to go faster in order to keep up with its soul-mate on the bottom route...) would reduce the ratings to zero, however some of the rest of the book is very good so it kept it off the bottom.I would have given a higher rating too, if the publisher had responded to my email pointing out a further error: chapter 11 is just wrong! This is what I emailed:Dr Hans' Frustrated Scientists Fight back 11aJust before you can move along to chapter 12, the violent and frustrated scientists demand that you prove your assertion that you do not need to take into account work done against gravity when towing the barges up stream.They have found an exit sluice from a dam which consists of a gigantic tube sloping steeply downwards half filled with water. Obviously the water is running down hill at an enormous speed but it is a long enough pipe that it has reached equilibrium. Floating on the water is a boat being pulled slowly, at a constant speed, by a strong towing cable running parallel with the tube and disappearing into the darkness up-stream from the boat. The boat is ballasted with heavy stones but is floating with a reasonable free-board. At several points on the top of the boat are adjustable rigid arms with frictionless wheels at the top.You are invited to get into the boat and adjust the arms so that the wheels are just touching the roof of the pipe then lock them in place. Now as you unload the ballast and carefully drop it overboard, the boat cannot float higher in the water because of the reaction force from the ceiling of the pipe pushing the hull down into the flow.However the attachment point of the tow rope is configured such that if its tension lessens, poison will be released into the stream making the atmosphere above it deadly (and killing you).What do you decide to do?1. Stick with your original assertion that the tension in the towing cable does not include an element dependent on the weight of the boat + contents, but is determined solely by the net friction/drag/buoyancy forces of its interaction with the fluid?2. Plead with the scientists that you had been instructed to assume that an object in free-fall or in equilibrium with buoyancy forces such as a hot air balloon or a boat was, in fact, weightless?Key Facts:- Towing a barge up river- Formula for the force required to move an object up an incline is Force = work against friction + change in potential (possibly divided by some factor such as velocity to keep Newton at peace in Westminster Cathedral)Whether there is weight in the boat or not does not effect the fluid forces of drag and buoyancy as the position is identical.A component of the weight of the stones is in the same direction as the tow-rope.No component of the reaction force from the ceiling is in the same direction as the tow-rope.