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Zoom : how everything moves : from atoms and galaxies to blizzards and bees / Bob Berman.

by Berman, Bob.

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Little Brown and Company, 2014.

9780316217408 (hc.)

0316217409 (hc.)

viii, 323 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages [309]-310) and index.

Damage and escape -- Figuring out the motion picture. The growth of nothingness : journeys in an exploding universe ; Slow as molasses : how we learned to love lethargy ; runaway poles : they're really shifting : are we toast? ; The man who only loved sand : and the curious phenomena of the Atacama Desert ; Down the drain : weird goings-on at the Equator, and the Frenchmen who died young ; Frozen : the unhurried riddles of snow and ice ; April's hidden mysteries : deciphering the secrets of spring -- The pace quickens. The gang that deciphered the wind : a desert dweller's airy spells last for a millennium, while two oddballs dodge the Inquisition ; Blown away : a fanatical mariner takes the world to the edge of violence ; Falling : enigmas of the most far-reaching force ; Rush hour for every body : revelations gained by looking within ; Brooks and breakers : Earth's greatest assets are liquid ; Invisible companions : the odd entities zooming through our bodies ; The stop-action murderer : and his battles with the ephemeral -- Barriers of light and sound : a thirty-century quest that began with thunder ; Meteor in the kitchen : and other peculiar end points ; Infinite speed : when light's velocity just won't get you there -- Sleepy village in an exploding universe : back where it all began -- Appendix 1. Table of selected natural speeds -- Appendix 2. A note on accuracy and choice of units.

If you sit as still as you can in a quiet room, you might be able to convince yourself that nothing is moving. But air currents are still wafting around you. Blood rushes through your veins. The atoms in your chair jiggle furiously. In fact, the planet you are sitting on is whizzing through space thirty-five times faster than the speed of sound. Natural motion dominates our lives and the intricate mechanics of the world around us. How motion shapes every aspect of the universe, literally from the ground up. The author spans astronomy, geology, biology, meteorology, and the history of science, uncovering how clouds stay aloft, how the Earth's rotation curves a home run's flight, and why a mosquito's familiar whine resembles a telephone's dial tone. Bob Berman is a columnist for Astronomy magazine.

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