This is a book about the science of shooting guns but it also applies to archery. Beginning with the most basic science, that gravity means you can never shoot straight, it carefully and clearly explains the physical science behind all aspects of shooting. Projectile motion, the effects of air resistance and rotational motion on projectiles, the importance of projectile shapes and materials, the science behind zeroing and many other topics are explained in the basic science section. We the...

Ordinary differential equations come in an almost bewildering variety. This field guide systematizes them and gives general methods for solving each type. Since there are numerous specific examples, some even with specific names, for which simpler methods are known, the guide also enumerates these too along with the secondary and tertiary methods for solving them.

Diophantine problems are word problems that essentially set up algebraic equations to be solved for positive integer or at least rational solutions. They are typically under-determined which opens up the possibility, if not the likelihood, of multiple solutions. This under-determined nature lends an air of mystery to them that adds to their fascination. Solving them seems magical because one intuitively expects them to be impervious to solution.The category of Diophantine problems i...

Word play has surely been around since language began. One suspects it may even have been a prime motivation in the very first framing of language. Language as a wholesale joke? Don't underestimate the possibility. Word juggling, tossing words around, can assume an almost infinite variety of forms. Riddles and puns are apparently as old as language itself. The invention of writing and alphabets then opened up more possibilities that I classify as letter juggling, Reversible words and palin...

Why do we think matter is made of atoms and the Earth goes around the Sun? How big is the universe? Did it have a beginning or is it eternal? Is heat a fluid or just the random motion of molecules? Is light made of particles or is it a fluid or maybe something else? This book answers these questions and many more as it traces the development of the modern scientific understanding of the physical world. The historical approach allows us to see not only how the content of the physical scienc...

Somewhere in the Multiverse, in a lab distant from the Makers’ Planet, Tunnel Maker, Creator of Bridges, answers an alarm. His inter-universe probe is detecting signals from another bubble universe, indicating that some new high-intelligence alien species is doing high-energy physics and creating hyperdimensional signals. Tunnel Maker knows that, in another bubble universe, the predatory Hive Mind should be receiving the same signals. It is time to make a Bridge . . .George Griffin...

In case you haven't noticed, you get to choose the world you live in. I don't mean you can control the conditions of your life. You may have had little or no choice of the house you live in or even of the street where you live. Certainly most of us do not have any great deal of control over our economic, political and cultural circumstances. Where we do have a choice is in our outlook. We can, indeed we must, choose how we view the world. We can neither act nor think without holding some w...

Teaching and learning about the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems is a challenge. The defining texts are all but unreadable even in translation. Here is a systematic exposition (pun intended) of the two great systems with 36 diagrams to aid you. Most of these diagrams, original work of the author, are unavailable outside of this source. Many of them are to-scale, greatly enhancing the perception of the tremendously impressive intellectual achievements of these two great scientists. And ther...

How alien would aliens be? Would they look like us or perhaps more like an octopus? How would they communicate? Could we even hear their voices, assuming they have them? Like us, aliens would be constrained by the physical world. Understanding how those physical constraints apply both to us and to aliens is the theme of this book. The constraints imply that they will not be all that different from us, perhaps half to twice as big as we are. They will depend on vision and hearing as we do a...

Are you a K-5 teacher who needs to teach science but feels unprepared? It is especially common for K-5 teachers to feel uncomfortable teaching physical sciences. This is the book for you. It is material I have prepared for our Masters in Arts in Teaching students at Oglethorpe University over years of teaching them how to teach physical sciences. I emphasize teaching by activities and demonstrations so the book is a compendium of activities and demonstrations in all the science areas cover...

It has been 15 years since the events of Einstein’s Bridge. George and Alice Griffin and Roger Coulton have established the Iris Foundation, a powerful island-isolated research organization tasked with exploiting the technologies learned from the Makers, re-learning Maker techniques for creating wormholes, reestablishing contact with the Makers, and protecting Earth from Hive invasions. Sparked by a new idea from Roger, Iris researchers finally master wormhole tec...

What I have observed of student struggles with introductory physics, after more than forty years of teaching it, is that learning how to think like a physicist is a much greater challenge than learning the subject matter. Introductory physics courses introduce students not only to content but also to new ways of thinking. The 75 forays of this book are invitations to a wide-ranging exploration of the physical world. A foray Is defined as "a venture or initial attempt in some field" and tha...