What Weighs More: 1 Kg of Iron Or 1 Kg of Feathers?


Book Description

Once, when I was still a child, my father asked me:'Which weighs more: 1 kilo of iron or 1 kilo of feathers?'I remember that sure of myself I answered him quickly: 'Surely 1 kilo of iron weighs more, dad, because metal things, like the armor of medieval knights, are very heavy, while the feathers that decorate birds' wings are very light'.I can't tell you how disappointed I was when I heard him say:'No my son, that's wrong: they weigh the same, because 1 kilo is always 1 kilo!'Maybe because of the evening trick questions from my dad, when I grew up I decided to become a physicist, and to my big surprise I discovered that I was right when I was a child. Indeed: On the Earth, even if only by a little, 1 kilo of iron weighs more than 1 kilo of feathers!Don't worry, the sawdust that I have in my head has not caught on fire! But I hope that I have made you curious and that now you will want to come hunting with me for this strange and heavy mistake.







Objective Physics


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Language, Power and Ideology


Book Description

The topic of Language and Ideology has increasingly gained importance in the linguistic sciences. The general aim of critical linguistics is the exploration of the mechanisms of power which establish inequality, through the systematic analysis of political discourse (written or oral). This reader contains papers on a variety of topics, all related to each other through explicit discussions on the notion of ideology from an interdisciplinary approach with illustrative analyses of texts from the media, newspapers, schoolbooks, pamphlets, talkshows, speeches concerning language policy in Nazi-Germany, in Italofascism, and also policies prevalent nowadays. Among the interesting subjects studied are the jargon of the student movement of 1968, speeches of politicians, racist and sexist discourse, and the language of the green movement. Because of the enormous influence of the media nowadays, the explicit analysis of the mechanisms of “manipulation”, “suggestion”, and “persuasion” inherent in language or about language behaviour and strategies of discourse are of social relevance and of interest to all scholars of social sciences, to readers in all educational institutions, to analysts of political discourse, and to critical readers at large.




Science In Action Physics 7


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Work Design: Occupational Ergonomics


Book Description

This book gives readers the tools they need to achieve work design that is ergonomically effective while remaining economically feasible. Whether studying work design/ergonomics in a college classroom, preparing for the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (BCPE) exam, or working as a professional in the field, readers can depend on this book to provide them with the information they need. Work Design is a single source for ergonomics, work design, and work measurement. Its engineering orientation equips readers with practical design information and procedures; its explicit organization, conversational style, and clear explanations make it easy to read and understand. The book's many charts and graphics dynamically illustrate important concepts and principles, and its extensive references give readers confidence in the material.







Physics


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Is That a Big Number?


Book Description

Impressive statistics are thrown at us every day - the cost of health care; the size of an earthquake; the distance to the nearest star; the number of giraffes in the world. We know all these numbers are important - some more than others - and it's vaguely unsettling when we don't really have a clear sense of how remarkable or how ordinary they are. How do we work out what these figures actually mean? Are they significant, should we be worried, or excited, or impressed? How big is big, how small is small? With this entertaining and engaging book, help is at hand. Andrew Elliott gives us the tips and tools to make sense of numbers, to get a sense of proportion, to decipher what matters. It is a celebration of a numerate way of understanding the world. It shows how number skills help us to understand the everyday world close at hand, and how the same skills can be stretched to demystify the bigger numbers that we find in the wider contexts of science, politics, and the universe. Entertaining, full of practical examples, and memorable concepts, Is That A Big Number? renews our relationship with figures. If numbers are the musical notes with which the symphony of the universe is written, and you're struggling to hear the tune, then this is the book to get you humming again.