February 5, 2016

Challenging questions about chemistry


Why Is Milk White? & 200 Other Curious Chemistry Questions
by Alexa Coelho and Simon Quellen Field


Eleven-year-old Coelho came up with the questions and chemist Field provided the answers in this handy reference book. If you've ever wondered how soap works, why the sky is blue, what chemists do, or why jelly feels squishy, this is the book for you. Field tries to answer the questions as simply as possible, though you may need to reread them at least twice to fully get it. 

There are a dozen projects to get your hands dirty, but you'll need to shop first as some materials may not be handy. One can only be done with a gas stove so electric range users are out of luck. Numbered steps would have made the instructions easier to follow. There are photographs, but they're hard to see and only in black-and-white (a problem when the experiments are about colour).

Not a bad book, but only for avid chemists and really inquisitive kids.



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