The Way Science Works

Somewhat overtitled: this book is mostly about physics, with some chemistry and a little biology. There are well balanced sections on the states of matter, atoms and elements, forces and energy, heat and sound, light and colour, electricity and magnetism. There is the usual DK high standard of illustration, a useful glossary and about sixty simple experiments for a reader aged 10 or over to perform, often with ‘an adult present’, requiring little but household materials.

Explanations are clear and generally accurate, if slightly marred by a wrong statement of Archimedes’ principle (on the same page as a correct statement); electromagnetic forces are mistakenly described as short-range; the explanation of the radiometer is one which was debunked about 1879.