The Book of Wildly Spectacular Sports Science

No dry, boring science lectures here: physics is exciting when it helps you throw a perfect spiral! Sean Connolly, author of the bestselling and award-winning The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science, The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science, and The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math, tackles his next great subject: the science behind kids’ favorite sports. Ever wonder how Michael Jordan seems to float through mid-air on a dunk? Or how bike gears help you ride uphill? Or why a belly flop hurts so much? With The Book of Wildly Spectacular Sports Science, kids learn by doing in a fact-filled and whimsically illustrated tour through the physics and physiology of athletic excellence. Covering a wide range of athletic interests—from hang gliding and motor racing, to wiffle ball and gymnastics, to the “Big 4” of baseball, football, basketball, and hockey—this book explains the enduring mysteries of sports through 60 hands-on experiments. Kids will test air resistance with a trashcan lid ping-pong paddle; mimic the momentum of a pitcher’s windup with a miniature trebuchet; or give new meaning to Newton’s Second Law of motion with a powerful popsicle stick karate chop—all the while building on an existing passion for sports to kindle interest in how success or defeat on the field depends so much on science.