Perfectly Perilous Math – A Book!

The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math is a new book from Workman Publishing. It fits in as a sequel to the popular science books Book of Totally Irresponsible Science and The Book of  Potentially Catastrophic Science. 

The topic, as the title implies, is more about Math than Science Experimentation. That does not mean this book is as dull as an elementary math text, however.  The book tries to live up to its title of “perilous”. Situations are described where the reader must come up with answers – such as in chapter 13 where you and some friends must cross a rickety rope bridge to escape zombies. Scenarios like this are the mainstay of this book and make math exciting. Blank pages are provided to work out the Math.

Examples of problems include:

Calculating if a rate will chew through a rope holding a bladed pendulum before it cuts into you tied up underneath it.

Destroying an asteroid using Geometry

Defeat Vampires using algebra

Use hourglasses to escape death by Pirates!

Calculate how to decompress from a diving expedition to avoid getting the Bends.

Figure out how long shipmates can survive on a barrel of fresh water after being shipwrecked!

As you can see, many of these problems involve life-or-death situations. The book is aimed at grabbing the interest of young mathematicians and keeping it with perilous situations to solve their way out of!

 

Want to buy other Math & Science books?

www.spectrum-scientifics.com

 

New Hands-On Science Books

There’s some new books in town, and they are all great fun for kids. They involve hands-on science projects on a  variety of topics.

First up is the Flying Machine Book:

This books has instructions on how to build 35 different kinds of homemade rockets, gliders, helicopters and more. Soda-Pop rockets, paper boomerangs, rubber-band  powered gliders are all part of the of this 197 page book of flying fun!

Next up is the Amazing Rubber Band Cars

This book does one thing: Have kids make cars powered by rubber bands – but it does it sooo well. Kids will learn about axles, gears, pulleys, friction, tension, speed, and much more as they build a dozen rubber band powered cars out of simple materials like cardboard, pencils, old CD’s and of course rubber bands.

The Paper Boomerang Book takes a part of that first book (The Flying Machine Book) and expands on it dramatically:

Instead of just a couple of pages on boomerangs, this book goes into heavy detail on how to build working paper boomerangs! You start by building trainers and work up to distance models, etc. Chapters are devoted to boomerang theory, tweaking techniques, decoration, and throwing styles!

www.spectrum-scientifics.com

Some New Science Books!

We’ve added a few new books to our lineup. Well, most of them are books, in truth on of them is a deck of cards!

The Boy Scouts of America have released a Deck of Snakes! Chock full of great information like their Deck of Trees and Deck of Stars, this deck also has a game that involves the snakes and their deadliness level. Many snakes are covered, from the harmless garden snake to the anaconda!

Next up in the new book list is a great kids book for biological science: Evolution Revolution!

This award-winning book covers one of the greatest aspects of science and answers such questions kids might have such as “Why do Zebras have stripes?”  and how, thanks to their DNA, they are one in a quintillion!

There also the mouthfull-titled The Most Explosive Science Book in the Universe – By the Brainwaves

Light-hearted and fun, this book is an exploration of science with those helpful Brainwaves! Topics include Energy, Matter, Reactions, the Periodic table, and much more!

These are just a few of the books we got in recently. We’ll have more up shortly!

www.spectrum-scientifics.com

So now there’s a sequel involved – Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2!

When we added the original Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction we knew it would be a popular book. After all, making catapults out of spoons and pencils is just so darn cool! But we didn’t know that it would become our most popular book this year!

The Original!

The book has been so popular that they have made a sequel appropriately titled Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2

The Sequel!

The book starts out fast with detailed instructions on how to build a 1/2 dozen handguns of the homemade, candy-shooting variety (with names like PPK TIC TAC, CANDY GLOCK and the Cotton Swab Special).  Then the book moves onto concealed weapons and the fun continues. Overall there are 30 different weapons to built such as the Paper Dart Watch and the Mint Tin Catapult. Non-weapons are also included in this edition, with the Bionic Ear, Toothpaste Periscope and many more!

Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2 proves it is a worthy sequel!

Soda Bottle Water Rocket!

We’ve recently added a nifty outdoor toy: The Water Rocket by 4M.

The concept is one you might have seen in smaller form: you pump up a model rocket that has a small amount of water inside. The pressure builds up a lot from your pumping and when you release the valve the high air pressure pushes the water out of the rocket. When that happens, good old Action/Reaction takes place to launch the rocket into the air.

This kit make a larger water rocket using a soda bottle and some parts to assemble it into a launchable rocket. The only thing not included is a bicycle pump – one that works a Presta valve (most do these days).

Once the rocket is assembled you pump it up and launch it up to  100 feet in the air! Please be sure to be outdoors.

This kit is a great entry into soda bottle water rocketry, don’t forget that you can buy a great instruction book to take things even further and make super soda bottle rockets!

www.spectrum-scientifics.com

New Books on Electronics & Magnets

We’ve got a couple of more new books in stock – these are part of our new ‘make your own science fun’ series (not the official name, BTW), much like the Soda Bottle Rocket & Practical Pyromaniac books, these are great teaching books with loads of hands on projects.

First up is Haywired – Pointless (yet awesome) Projects For The Electronically Inclined

HayWired!

Haywired starts off fast,with a description of how to build a painting where the eyeballs actually move (Creepy!). From there it goes on to give hints and ideas on how to make projects, and all sorts of new gadget ideas such as a capacitor racing car, talking alarm clock, and more. All of these can be built with simple components and detailed pictures are used throughout the book!

From Electricity to Magnetism we move onto Mondo Magnets

Mondo Magnets

Mondo Magnets covers a lot of classic magnet experiment, from playing with iron filings and magnets, to floating magnets, linear accelerators, and much more. Over 40 experiments are described in detail.

www.spectrum-scientifics.com

Amazing X-Ray Pets & X-Ray Wild Animals

A couple of ‘Books’ that we carry are the Amazing X-Ray series. The two we have are Amazing X-Rays Pets, and Amazing X-Rays Wild Animals.

Amazing X-Rays Pets has a built-in light box, along with 16 X-rays of common household pet:

X-Ray Pets

There is also an informative booklet discussing aspects of the pet’s skeleton and other details.

Here we are trying the X-Ray Pets ‘Try Me’ Mode:

The companion piece to Amazing X-Rays Pets is Amazing X-Rays Wild Animals. The idea is the same except the subject matter is animals in the wild instead of domesticated pets. You still get the light box and 16 X-Rays

Amazing X-Rays Wild Animals

Animals such as Cheetahs, Monkeys, and Otters are just some of the X-Rays included.

Like the Amazing X-Ray Pets, we have a video of the “Try Me’ feature in action:

Either of these books is great for any young animal scientist! Start training a future Veterinarian today!