(Part 2) Best science experiments & measurement books according to redditors

Most stoners I've known are dilettantes when it comes to astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. There are some exceptions.

Richard Feynman was a ground breaking physicist who opened many doors. He experimented with marijuana, LSD and ketamine. He also spent some time with John Lily and his sensory deprivation tanks. I'm not sure I'd call him a stoner, though.

Rudy Rucker is a mathematician and science fiction writer. He often mentions LSD in his essays. His science fiction is often as spacey as Norman Spinrad's. A Rucker non fiction book I'd recommend is The Fourth Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality

But for every drug using legit scientist or mathematician there seem to be a dozen drug addled cranks. Timothy Leary, Dan Winter, etc.

So far as I know Tyson doesn't use drugs. But he's an icon for dilettante stoners who really don't know that much about math or science. He is often saying stuff that is just wrong. Like telling Joe Rogan there's more transcendental numbers than irrationals. Or telling Fareed Zakaria that before NASA, miniaturizing electronics was a non-thought.

I believe healthy skepticism and some self discipline is needed to deeply study the universe. Which most of Tyson's fans lack. Tyson's wrong stuff sometimes makes serious scientists cringe in embarrassment for the guy.

I'll just leave this here...

Edit: Also this, I guess

I suggest How to Fossilize your hamster and Caveman Chemistry. The first is more experiment based (one chapter, one experiment). Sadly, it doesn't teach you how to fossilize hamsters, despite the title. The second is more general. It has some experiments and guidance, and it's really interesting to read.

Further reading/research: (Not all of which I've gotten to read yet. Some of which may be quite tangentially relevant to the discussion at hand along with the books and sites I mentioned above. Consider this more a list of books pertaining to the history of technology, machining, metrology, some general science and good engineering texts.)

Dan Gelbart's Youtube Channel

Engineerguy's Youtube Channel

Nick Mueller's Youtube Channel

mrpete222/tubalcain's youtube channel

Tom Lipton (oxtools) Youtube Channel

Suburban Tool's Youtube Channel

NYCNC's Youtube Channel

Computer History Museum's Youtube Channel

History of Machine Tools, 1700-1910 by Steeds

Studies in the History of Machine Tools by Woodbury

A History of Machine Tools by Bradley

Tools for the Job: A History of Machine Tools to 1950 by The Science Museum

A History of Engineering Metrology by Hume

Tools and Machines by Barnard

The Testing of Machine Tools by Burley

Modern machine shop tools, their construction, operation and manipulation, including both hand and machine tools: a book of practical instruction by Humphrey & Dervoort

Machine-Shop Tools and Methods by Leonard

A Measure of All Things: The Story of Man and Measurement by Whitelaw

Handbook of Optical Metrology: Principles and Applications by Yoshizawa

Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon by Gray

Machine Shop Training Course Vol 1 & 2 by Jones

A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882-1982

Numerical Control: Making a New Technology by Reintjes

History of Strength of Materials by Timoshenko

Rust: The Longest War by Waldman

The Companion Reference Book on Dial and Test Indicators: Based on our popular website www.longislandindicator.com by Meyer

Optical Shop Testing by Malacara

Lost Moon: The Preilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Lovell and Kruger

Kelly: More Than My Share of It All by Johnson & Smith

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Rich & Janos

Unwritten Laws of Engineering by King

Advanced Machine Work by Smith

Accurate Tool Work by Goodrich

Optical Tooling, for Precise Manufacture and Alignment by Kissam

The Martian: A Novel by Weir

Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain by Young Budynas & Sadegh

Materials Selection in Mechanical Design by Ashby

Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer by Shute

Cosmos by Sagan

Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook by Smith Carol Smith wrote a number of other great books such as Engineer to Win.

Tool & Cutter Sharpening by Hall

Handbook of Machine Tool Analysis by Marinescu, Ispas & Boboc

The Intel Trinity by Malone

Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals by Thompson

A Handbook on Tool Room Grinding

Tolerance Design: A Handbook for Developing Optimal Specifications by Creveling

Inspection and Gaging by Kennedy

Precision Engineering by Evans

Procedures in Experimental Physics by Strong

Dick's Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes or How They Did it in the 1870's by Dick

Flextures: Elements of Elastic Mechanisms by Smith

Precision Engineering by Venkatesh & Izman

Metal Cutting Theory and Practice by Stephenson & Agapiou

American Lathe Builders, 1810-1910 by Cope As mentioned in the above post, Kennth Cope did a series of books on early machine tool builders. This is one of them.

Shop Theory by Henry Ford Trade Shop

Learning the lost Art of Hand Scraping: From Eight Classic Machine Shop Textbooks A small collection of articles combined in one small book. Lindsay Publications was a smallish company that would collect, reprint or combine public domain source material related to machining and sell them at reasonable prices. They retired a few years ago and sold what rights and materials they had to another company.

How Round Is Your Circle?: Where Engineering and Mathematics Meet by Bryant & Sangwin

Machining & CNC Technology by Fitzpatrick

CNC Programming Handbook by Smid

Machine Shop Practice Vol 1 & 2 by Moltrecht

The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles A fantastic book with tons of free online material, labs, and courses built around it. This book could take a 6th grader interested in learning, and teach them the fundamentals from scratch to design a basic computer processor and programming a simple OS etc.

Bosch Automotive Handbook by Bosch

Trajectory Planning for Automatic Machines and Robots by Biagiotti & Melchiorri

The Finite Element Method: Its Basis and Fundamentals by Zhu, Zienkiewicz and Taylor

Practical Treatise on Milling and Milling Machines by Brown & Sharpe

Grinding Technology by Krar & Oswold

Principles of Precision Engineering by Nakazawa & Takeguchi

Foundations of Ultra-Precision Mechanism Design by Smith

I.C.S. Reference Library, Volume 50: Working Chilled Iron, Planer Work, Shaper and Slotter Work, Drilling and Boring, Milling-Machine Work, Gear Calculations, Gear Cutting

I. C. S. Reference Library, Volume 51: Grinding, Bench, Vise, and Floor Work, Erecting, Shop Hints, Toolmaking, Gauges and Gauge Making, Dies and Die Making, Jigs and Jig Making
and many more ICS books on various engineering, technical and non-technical topics.

American Machinists' Handbook and Dictionary of Shop Terms: A Reference Book of Machine-Shop and Drawing-Room Data, Methods and Definitions, Seventh Edition by Colvin & Stanley

Modern Metal Cutting: A Practical Handbook by Sandvik

Mechanical Behavior of Materials by Dowling

Engineering Design by Dieter and Schmidt

[Creative Design of Products and Systems by Saeed]()

English and American Tool Builders by Roe

Machine Design by Norton

Control Systems by Nise

That doesn't include some random books I've found when traveling and visiting used book stores. :)

• The World of Westeros (GoT).
  
  
• The Little Prince
  
  
• And The Large Hadron Collider
  
  

I can recommend couple that I have read myself:

• The Particle Garden
  
• The Quantum Frontier: The Large Hadron Collider
  
  Edit: These are popular science books, though. But very well written.

Get her the Foundations of Measurement Volumes I-III.

Measures of Genius by Alan Durden is a book about the scientists whose names are used for SI units, such as the volt (Alessandro Volta) and the watt (James Watt).

The book is available from Amazon and a news article about it is here.

I had Lauritzen: "Concrete Abstract Algebra" to cover the first semester you describe. It's quite short, and yet it explains every (needed) detail thoroughly. I'm not sure it covers your curriculum (S1) entirely, but it's close.

All About Telescopes by Sam Brown

It is out of print, but teaches all about lenses and optics including photography, so it is much more than just telescopes.

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL13549980M/All_about_telescopes

Number 9094 on the cover is the 3rd edition, but any will do. Be sure it is the nearly 200 page edition (my 9094 is 192 pages). There were short booklets by the same author.

https://www.amazon.com/Telescopes-Popular-Library-Scientific-Paperback/dp/0933346204
(you might find cheaper prices --the above was one quick search).

See this discussion about Brown and his books: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/478975-all-about-telescopes-by-sam-brown/

edit: spelling

I have a little secret :) We didn't cover vector spaces yet. I know horrific, but that's it. Another secret is I already saw a proof of each problem. We are studying out of Henry Ricardo and just finished the section 1.3. Haven't even covered the bases yet. These exercises are supposed to give a taste for what's to come. But your attention is flattering :)

[Quick and Easy Stirling Engine]
(http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Easy-Stirling-Engine-Larsen/dp/1466277777/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331352941&sr=1-2&tag=bookforyoudm-20)

Haha I mean he literally did. Go check it out on Amazon

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/jed_mcclure

https://www.amazon.com/Hexagonal-Graph-Paper-Notebook-Notebooks/dp/1537648705

Those books are definitely geared toward materials science. If you're interested in the operation of TEM, though, it should be helpful. The physics behind the instrument don't really change. In a virology lab, you probably work at lower accelerating voltages, and you might not be doing atomic-resolution work, so those bits wouldn't apply to you.

This book is cheap and discusses biological applications, so it may be a better starting point. Some of the springer publications are nice resources, but they can be quite expensive. You might want to check your school library for any books you may be interested in. Also, some of these things can be found for free in PDF form if you search hard enough online.

Most of the books I've used to learn about TEM are for materials science or specifically STEM and Z-contrast imaging. Those types of resources may not be as relevant to you.

Whatever happened to the Metric System is a really interesting book that goes through the chaos prior to "metrificiation" during the French Revolution, and the scope of the craze around unit of measure standardization, including descriptions of the calendar system that was put in place. It's a surprisingly engrossing book.

http://www.amazon.com/Lab-Chip-Technology-Biomolecular-Separation/dp/1904455476/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

and

http://www.amazon.com/Lab-Chip-Technology-Fabrication-Microfluidics/dp/1904455468/ref=pd_sim_b_1

[This book](histology hacks https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979731772?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf) is a good reference for some tricks.

The US does use the metric system. Did you know the US was the first country to decimalize their currency? We use metric everyday, but we also use older units. There are many very good reasons for this.

http://www.amazon.com/Whatever-Happened-Metric-System-America/dp/1608194752/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407338001&sr=1-1