How To Dunk A Doughnut: Using Science In Everyday Life

Synopsis

In 1998 Len Fisher attracted world-wide attention with his experiments on the physics of biscuit dunking. These won him a spoof 'IgNobel Prize', a letter of commendation from the royal society and a nomination as 'an enemy of the people' by the Times newspaper. In this funny, fascinating and accessible book the author tells the true stories behind this and other projects, taking a scientific look at the familiar and the everday as a way of opening the door to science, and showing, from an insider's viewpoint, what it feels like to be a scientist, what things scientists do, why they do it and how they go about it. Scientists exploring the most commonplace and mundane phenomena have provided insight into some of the most profound scientific questions and uncovered some of nature's deepest laws - see Count Rumford, who discovered the principle of heat convection after burning his mouth on hot apple pie. We can in turn use these laws to understand and improve our performance in many everday activities, as How to Dunk a Doughnut shows, demonstrating the benefits of a more scientific approach to things as diverse as sport, DIY and sex. Along the way, we meet scientists from past and present and learn the solutions to many of modern life's most pressing problems, from the scientific way to add up a shopping bill, to how to use the laws of thermodynamics to boil the perfect egg.