This book is an unconventional introduction to physics and science that starts with whole objects and looks inside them to see what makes them work. It's written for students who seek a connection between science and the world in which they live. "How Things Work" brings science to the reader rather than the reverse. Like the course in which it developed, this book has always been for nonscientists and is written with their interests in mind. Nonetheless, it has attracted students from the sciences, engineering, architecture, and other technical fields who wish to put scientific concepts into context. This book is written in English and organized in a case-study fashion. It conveys an understanding and appreciation for physics by finding physics concepts and principles within the familiar objects of everyday experience. Because its structure is defined by real-life examples, this book necessarily discusses concepts as they're needed and then revisits them later on when they reappear in other objects. Lou Bloomfield is a highly dedicated teacher and one of the most popular professors at University of Virginia, and was the recipient of the 1998 State of Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. Lou has given talks all over the country on teaching physics through everyday objects. He has extreme attention to detail and knowledge of technical physics. He is very tech savvy and has been able to provide many of the photos and illustrations for the text himself.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. The Laws of Motion, Part I. Experiment: Removing a Tablecloth from a Table 1.1.1 Skating. (inertia, force, velocity, acceleration, mass, Newton's first and second laws, inertial frames of reference, units).1.2 Falling Balls. (weight, projectile motion, vector components).1.3 Ramps. (net force, Newton's third law, energy, work, energy conservation, potential energy, ramps,mechanical advantage).Chapter 2. The Laws of Motion, Part II. Experiment: A Spinning Pie Dish.2.1 Seesaws. (rotational inertia, torque, angular velocity, angular acceleration, rotational mass, Newton's first and second laws of rotation, center of mass, levers).2.2 Wheels. (friction, thermal energy, wheels, bearings, kinetic energy).2.3 Bumper Cars. (momentum, impulse, momentum conservation, angular momentum, angular impulse, angular momentum conservation, Newton's third law of rotation, potential energy and acceleration).Chapter 3. Mechanical Objects, Part I. Experiment: Swinging Water Overhead.3.1 Spring Scales. (Equilibrium, stable equilibrium, Hooke's law, oscillation, calibration, center of gravity).3.2 Bouncing Balls. (collisions, energy transfers, vibration, elastic and inelastic collisions).3.3 Carousels and Roller Coasters. (feeling of acceleration, uniform circular motion, centripetal acceleration).Chapter 4. Mechanical Objects, Part II. Experiment: High Flying Balls.4.1 Bicycles. (unstable equilibrium, static and dynamic stability, precession).4.2 Rockets and Space Travel. (reaction forces, Newton's law of gravitation, elliptical orbits, Kepler's laws, special and general relativity, equivalence principle).Chapter 5. Fluids. Experiment: A Cartesian Diver.5.1 Balloons. (pressure, density, temperature, Archimedes' principle, buoyant force, ideal gas law).5.2 Water Distribution. (hydrostatics, Pascal's principle, hydraulics, hydrodynamics, steady state flow, Bernoulli's equation).Chapter 6. Fluids and Motion. Experiment: A Vortex Cannon.6.1 Garden Watering. (viscous forces, laminar and turbulent flows, speed and pressure in a fluid, Reynolds number, chaos, momentum in a fluid).6.2 Balls and Air. (aerodynamic lift and drag, viscous drag, pressure drag, boundary layers, Magnus and wake deflection forces).6.3 Airplanes. (streamlining, lifting wing, angle of attack, induced drag, stalled wing, thrust).Chapter 7. Heat and Phase Transitions. Experiment: A Ruler Thermometer.7.1 Woodstoves. (thermal energy, heat, temperature, chemical bonds and reactions, conduction, thermal conductivity, convection, radiation, heat capacity).7.2 Water, Steam, and Ice. (phases of matter, phase transitions, melting, freezing, condensation, evaporation, relative humidity, latent heats of melting and evporation, sublimation, deposition, boiling, nucleation, superheating).7.3 Incandescent Lightbulbs. (electromagnetic spectrum, light, blackbody spectrum, emissivity, Stefan-Boltzmann law, thermal expansion).Chapter 8. Thermodynamics. Experiment: Making Fog in a Bottle.8.1 Air Conditioners. (laws of thermodynamics, temperature, heat, entropy, heat pumps and thermodynamic efficiency).8.2 Automobiles. (heat engines and thermodynamic efficiency).Chapter 9. Resonance and Mechanical Waves. Experiment: A Singing Wineglass.9.1 Clocks. (time and space, natural resonance, harmonic oscillators, simple harmonic motion, frequency).9.2 Musical Instruments. (sound, music, vibrations in strings, air, and surfaces, higher-order modes, harmonic and nonharmonic overtones, sympathetic vibration, standing and traveling waves, transverse and longitudinal waves, velocity, frequency, and wavelength in mechanical waves, superposition, Doppler effect).9.3 The Sea. (tidal forces, surface waves, dispersion, refraction, reflection, and interference in mechanical waves).Chapter 10. Electricity. Experiment: Moving Water Without Touching It.10.1 Static Electricity. (electric charge, electrostatic forces, Coulomb's law, electrostatic potential energy, voltage, charging by contact, electric polarization, electrical conductors and insulators).10.2 Xerographic Copiers. (electric fields and voltage gradients, relationships between shape and field, discharges, electric current, direction of current flow, charging by induction).10.3 Flashlights. (electric circuits, electrical resistance, voltage rises, voltage drops, relationship between current, voltage, and power, Ohm's law).Chapter 11. Magnetism and Electrodynamics. Experiment: A Nail and Wire Electromagnet.11.1 Household Magnets. (magnetic pole, magnetostatic forces, Coulomb's law for magnetism, magnetic fields, ferromagnetism, magnetic polarization, magnetic domains, magnetic materials, magnetic flux lines, relationship between currents and magnetic fields).11.2 Electric Power Distribution. (superconductivity, direct and alternating currents, induction, transformers, magnetic field energy, relationship between changing magnetic fields and electric fields, induced emf, Lenz's law, electrical safety).11.3 Electric Generators and Motors. (electromagnetic forces, energy, and work, Lorenz force).Chapter 12. Electronics. Experiment: Building an Electronic Kit.12.1 Power Adapters. (quantum physics, wave-particle duality, Pauli exclusion principle, band structure, Fermi level, metals, insulators, and semiconductors, p-n junction, diodes, capacitors).12.2 Audio Players. (analog vs. digital representations, resistors, MOSFETs, logic elements, series and parallel circuits, amplifiers).Chapter 13. Electromagnetic Waves. Experiment: Boiling Water in an Ice Cup.13.1 Radio. (electric field energy, relationship between changing electric fields and magnetic fields, tank circuits, speed of light, wave polarization, amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, bandwidth).13.2 Microwave Ovens. (speed, frequency, and wavelength in electromagnetic waves, polar and nonpolar molecules, cyclotron motion).Chapter 14. Light. Experiment: Splitting the Colors of Sunlight.14.1 Sunlight. (Rayleigh scattering, impedance, refraction, reflection, dispersion, and interference in electromagnetic waves, index of refraction, polarized reflection).14.2 Discharge Lamps. (color vision, primary colors of light and pigment, gas discharges, periodic chart, atomic structure and emission, radiative transitions, Planck's constant, fluorescence, radiation trapping).14.3 Lasers and LEDs. (incoherent and coherent light, spontaneous and stimulated emission, population inversion, laser amplification and oscillation, diffraction, laser safety).Chapter 15. Optics. Experiment: Focusing Sunlight.15.1 Cameras. (refracting optics, converging lenses, real images, focus, focal lengths, f-numbers, the lens equation, diverging lenses, virtual images, light sensors, vision and vision correction).15.2 Optical Recording and Communication. (diffraction limit, plane and circular polarization, total internal reflection).Chapter 16. Modern Physics. Experiment: Radiation Damaged Paper.16.1 Nuclear Weapons. (nuclear structure, isotopes, radioactivity, uncertainty principle, tunneling, half-life, alpha decay, fission, chain reaction, fusion, transmutation of elements, fallout).16.2 Medical Imaging and Radiation. (X rays, gamma rays, X-ray fluorescence, Bremsstrahlung, photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, beta decay, anitimatter, accelerators, magnetic resonance).Appendices.A. Vectors.B. Units, Conversion of Units.Glossary.Solutions to Selected Exercises and Problems.Index.