The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey

i obtained this a few Xmases ago, but put off reading it thinking it would be cheesy. it is actually quite good and the author puts off the most ridiculous topics like mach 6500 santa and flying quadrapeds for the final two chapters. before that is much science and most not physics. "The Science of Christmas" would be a more appropriate title. this includes the chemistry of cooking, brewing and its medical effects and much history including the role Coca-Cola had in shaping the appearance of Santa Claus. while the familiar contradictions are explored such as Christ most certainly not born on Christmas and early Puritans disdainful of the holiday's pagan roots, this work covers others. This includes the myth of a yuletide suicide uptick, show more it being markedly lower, and that a religious life is demonstrable through studies as healthier. the latter is emphasized in an appendix. show less

Only my sister, my lifelong partner in crime, could find a book that addresses my love of all things Christmas & physics! What a laugh we all had until she said open it, read the opening of a chapter. I immediately did so looking for a Chapter page. If I recall, it explained the aerodynamics of how reindeer fly. The book wasn't quite the gag I thought, it was a relatively legitimate research paper explaining various traditions from a scientific perspective. A great gift for Closet Christmas nerds!

I didn't expect I'd like the book as much as I did. Reading it was a great pleasure for me, a perfect light read for the Christmas season.

Everything you could ever want to know (and more) about possible identities for the Star of Bethlehem, mechanisms for virgin birth, the psychology of giving, the properties of snow and many other Christmas related subjects.

I guess I wasn't really in the mood for a science book, so I skimmed through it, stopping to read a few of the more interesting looking chapters such as those on the theoretical possibility of a virgin birth, the psychology of gift giving and the properties of snow. I can't say that I found the theories about the best way to cook a turkey and speculation on why Santa is so fat, terribly interesting.

Some sections were stronger than others. I wish it weren't titled 'The Physics of' because there's a lot of biology and pschology etc. in there, too. A lot of speculation, too. Interesting, though, mostly. No narrative to keep it flowing - read it in the bits it's structured into for best effect.

Imagine a collection of journal abstracts collected along loosely associated theme lines and you have the making of this book. In other words - a great collection of factoids but not much of a story. This book is broken up into 12 chapters and two appendices (which seem to have been tacked on arbitrarily). Each chapter supposedly focuses on a Christmas related element e.g. The Bethlehem Star, Miracle, Snow (which touched on a pet peeve of mine i.e. while USA, Europe, China and Russia are freezing their butts off in December us folks down South are in the midst of Summer - but this distinction never seems to cross this and many other author's minds). In any event while each chapter does cover material related to it's title, the author show more also takes extreme poetic licence to cover just about anything else there after (which isn’t covered in any of the other chapters) e.g. in the Giving and Shopping chapter he goes on a self confessed diversion about the theory of lost socks! Towards the end of the book you can hardly turn a page without seeing a reference to at least one academic institute, two papers and three researchers (and perhaps the odd lab mouse/rat/worm) which leads to very tedious reading. That said however, I did learn some interesting things but wouldn't recommend this book for your casual reading list. show less

From the aerodynamics of Reindieer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey
A spoof but also some real science