PUTTERING WITH PAPER

The title sounds like another rainy day tricks book, which this can be, but with the added value of introducing elementary science concepts. It has the same casual questioning format that characterizes other books from this prolific team, this time taking on static electricity (via rubber comb and paper bits), tensile strength, air pressure (glass of water and cardboard-and an over-the-sink recommendation), inertia, cohesion and adhesion, capillary action, stretchability and limit of elasticity, even Piaget's conservation of mass. As a gimmick, several sections are titled for the man who pointed out the phenomenon (Franklin, Da Vinci, Thomas Young, Galileo, Torricelli, Hooke) which leaves the other parts with the uninspired headings Who, What and When. Each section also concludes with a discussion (often inadequate and always too brief) of the preceding experiments. Again, the equipment is easy to come by, the illustrations generally helpful and properly placed. Better as a starting point than as a traveling companion.