Fairy Tale Physics - by Sarah Allen (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Four illustrated fairy tales, four branches of physics - and full answer keys, because the science isn't hand-waving.

Kip seeks his fortune with nothing but an apple. Queen Elise sails into a fog no one returns from. Prince John learns to rule by the light of a single candle. And a girl named Worry sets out to rescue her sister with the help of a ghostly cat named Kepler.

Four complete stories. Every problem in them solved with real physics.

Book 1 - Newton's Laws: A Fairy Tale

Kip journeys out to seek his fortune armed with an apple and his wits, and picks up Newton's three laws of motion along the way.

Book 2 - Fluid Mechanics: A Fairy Tale

Queen Elise crosses the sea to break a wizard's curse, unraveling buoyancy, pressure, flow rate, and Archimedes' screw with the help of Archimedes and Bernoulli themselves.

Book 3 - Light: A Fairy Tale

Prince John learns to rule with a magical candle and the guidance of light mages from history - an introduction to light, color, and optics.

Book 4 - Gravity: A Fairy Tale

Worry sets out to rescue her sister and unlock the secrets of the Scholar Knights, discovering gravity, tides, and orbits along the way.

What's inside each book:

• An illustrated story that works on its own, with no science required
• Plain-language explanations of every concept, with pronunciation guides
• Worked examples showing each calculation step by step
• Conceptual practice problems with a complete answer key
• Quantitative practice problems with a complete answer key
• Try-it-yourself experiments and free online simulations

Written for readers 9-12, with math sections that carry a motivated reader - or a high schooler taking physics - considerably further. Skip the math entirely and the stories still stand.

Sarah Allen holds a degree in physics and a master's in cognition and learning, and spent twenty years teaching math and physics before writing full time.

A note for returning readers: the story in Book 2 has since been rewritten and expanded into a full-length novel, The Hopeful Queen of the Clockwork Court. It's a different book - new setting, new characters, and a very different ending - but if you've read this collection, you'll recognize a few familiar puzzles.