Light Aircraft Association BOOKS

Online Catalogue. > BOOKS - POPULAR SCIENCE

Informative and entertaing gifts for all ages.

DON'T FORGET - ALL PRICES INCLUDE P&P!!

	INFLIGHT SCIENCE The perfect companion to any flight - a guide to the science on view from your window seat. There are few times when science is so immediate as when you're in a plane. Your life is in the hands of the scientists and engineers who enable tons of metal and plastic to hurtle through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour. Inflight Science shows how you stay alive up there - but that's only the beginning. Brian Clegg explains the ever changing view, whether it's crop circles or clouds, mountains or river deltas, and describes simple experiments to show how a wing provides lift, or what happens if you try to open a door in midair (don't!). On a plane you'll experience the impact of relativity, the power of natural radiation and the effect of altitude on the boiling point of tea. Among the many things you'll learn is why the sky is blue, the cause of thunderstorms and the impact of volcanic ash in an enjoyable tour of mid-air science. Every moment of your journey is an opportunity to experience science in action: Inflight Science will be your guide. Softback, 224 pages, some illustrations. Price: £10.00


	NEW SCIENTIST - WHY ARE ORANGUTANS ORANGE? The classic 'New Scientist Q&As'. Now illustrated for the first time, with eighty full-colour photographs showing the beauty, complexity and mystery of the world around us, here is the next eagerly awaited volume of science questions and answers from "New Scientist" magazine. From ripples in glass to 'holograms' in ice, the natural world's wonders are unravelled by the magazine's knowledgeable readers. Six years on from Does Anything Eat Wasps? (2005), "The New Scientist series" still rides high in the bestseller lists, with well over two million copies sold. Popular science has never been more absorbing or more enjoyable. Like Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? (2006), Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? (2008) and Why Can't Elephants Jump? (2010), this latest collection of resourceful, wry and well-informed answers to a remarkable range of baffling science questions is guaranteed to impress and delight. Price: £8.00


	NEW SCIENTIST - WHY CAN'T ELEPHANTS JUMP? Price: £8.00


	NEW SCIENTIST - WHY DON'T PENGUINS' FEET FREEZE? Price: £8.00


	NEW SCIENTIST - HOW TO MAKE A TORNADO? Price: £8.00


	NEW SCIENTIST - DO POLAR BEARS GET LONELY? Price: £8.00


	NEW SCIENTIST - DOES ANYTHING EAT WASPS? Price: £8.00


	WHY BALLOONS RISE AND APPLES FALL - THE LAWS THAT MAKE THE WORLD WORK We all know the world works in mysterious ways! But have you ever itched to know why? Why don't heavier things fall faster? Why do we have more energy when we're sitting upstairs? Is time travel really possible? And what happened to Schrodinger's poor cat? "Why Balloons Rise and Apples Fall" is an accessible look at the fascinating, awe-inspiring and sometimes downright weird world of physics. It covers all the basics we learnt at school from: what is physics; motion and forces; work and energy; matter and heat; and, electricity and magnetism. It even covers the more thought-provoking and complex questions of relativity, quantum physics and astrophysics, as well as all the exciting philosophical questions that arise out of these subjects. Hardback, 192pp. PRICE INCLUDES P&P. Price: £11.00


	WHY THINGS BREAK - Understanding the World by the Way It Comes Apart Did you know?... It took more than an Iceberg to sink the Titanic. The Challenger disaster was predicted. Unbreakable glass dinnerware had its origin in railroad lanterns. A football team cannot lose momentum. Mercury thermometers are prohibited on airplanes for a crucial reason. Mark Eberhart's 'Why Things Break' explores the fascinating question of what holds things together (for a while), what breaks them apart, and why the answers have a direct bearing on our everyday lives. When Eberhart was growing up in the 1960s, he learned that splitting an atom leads to a terrible explosion - which prompted him to worry that when he cut into a stick of butter, he would inadvertently unleash a nuclear cataclysm. Years later, as a chemistry professor, he remembered this childhood fear when he began to ponder the fact that we know more about how to split an atom than we do about how a pane of glass breaks. In Why Things Break, Eberhart leads us on a remarkable and entertaining exploration of all the cracks, clefts, fissures, and faults examined in the field of materials science and the many astonishing discoveries that have been made about everything from the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger to the crashing of your hard drive. Understanding why things break is crucial to modern life on every level, from personal safety to macroeconomics, but as Eberhart reveals here, it is also an area of cutting-edge science that is as provocative as it is illuminating. Softback, 250pp. PRICE INCLUDES P&P. Price: £12.00


	PROFESSOR STEWART'S HOARD OF MATHEMATICAL TREASURES PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS THE NEW SOFTBACK EDITION OF THIS BOOK - THE COVER IS AS SHOWN HERE, NOT AS IN THE CURRENT LAA MAGAZINE. Ian Stewart, author of the bestselling "Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities", presents a new and magical mix of games, puzzles, paradoxes, brainteasers, and riddles. He mingles these with forays into ancient and modern mathematical thought, appallingly hilarious mathematical jokes, and inquiries into the great mathematical challenges of the present and past. Amongst a host of arcane and astonishing facts about every kind of number from irrational or imaginary to complex or cuneiform, we find out how to organize chaos, how to turn a sphere inside out (without creasing it!), why you can't comb a hairy ball, etc. And we get some tantalizing glimpses into the maths of life and the universe. Mind-stretching, enlightening and endlessly amusing, Professor Stewart's new book stimulates, delights, and enthralls. 339pp, paperback. PRICE INCLUDES P&P. Price: £9.00


	MATH HYSTERIA. Welcome to Ian Stewart's strange and magical world of mathematics! In Math Hysteria, Professor Stewart presents us with a wealth of magical puzzles, each one spun around an amazing tale: Counting the Cattle of the Sun; The Great Drain Robbery; and Preposterous Piratical Predicaments; to name but a few. Along the way, we also meet many curious characters: in short, these stories are engaging, challenging, and lots of fun! Ideal for anyone interested in the fun side of maths - all ages, from about 11 upwards. 236pp, large-format paperback. Price: £8.00


	The Natural Navigator Starting with a simple question - 'Which way am I looking?' - Tristan Gooley blends natural science, myth, folklore and the history of travel to introduce you to the rare and ancient art of finding your way using nature's own sign-posts, from the feel of a rock to the look of the moon. With Tristan's help, you'll learn why some trees grow the way they do and how they can help you find your way in the countryside. You'll discover how it's possible to find North simply by looking at a puddle and how natural signs can be used to navigate on the open ocean and in the heart of the city. Wonderfully detailed and full of fascinating stories, this is a glorious exploration of a rediscovered art. PRICE INCLUDES P&P. Price: £15.00

Online Catalogue. > BOOKS - POPULAR SCIENCE