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

Bought this book for my husband & he loves it. So I bought a few more for presents for other people. Not deep "boring" science, but good for those who lean a bit that way in their interests.

For those who believe curiosity killed the cat, this book proves such cliches to be incorrect. Dr. Highfield has done well to organize the massive amounts of research in sociology, psychology, chemistry, physics etc. in such a way as to explain much of the mysteries and associations of the holidays. Despite such "debunking", Highfield somehow manages to retain much of the mystery and joy of Christmas in his writing, which balances humor and academic rigor nicely. This is a must read for the perpetually curious, and holiday revelers of all sorts.

As a fan of trivia, I found the scientific and historical accounts contained within fascinating. It gives, as a whole, a sort of evolution of Christmas and it's traditions, interesting scientific information, and riduculously unimportant facts that are still a lot of fun to read. Also, the book is wonderful coffee table reading because it is not required, or even recommended, to read it from cover to cover. It is essentially a compendum of interesting essays, and a good buy.

The title is a bit misleading. This book is light on the physics while covering many other disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, chemistry (the author is a chemist), biology, and physiology. However, the broad range of topics keeps the reader's interest. The author was also able to keep everything on such a level that a reader with a minimal background in science can appreciate the book.

This is a wonderful gift book, even better to own (but it is clearly a seasonal read). The author is a scientist of wonderfully broad knowledge, and he puts all of it to work to examine and evaluate virtually all of the things that mean "Christmas" to the western world: from formulae for estimating the cooking time for a plum pudding, to the history and derivation of Santa, to why evergreens stay green, and beyond. Did you know, for example, that there are serious efforts to clone Christmas trees? Or that Santa's reindeer would only have had antlers at Christmas time if they were female, or castrated? The title is a little bit misleading - it is really the various sciences of Christmas, not limited to physics. This is a book for adults or teens - dense with information and fun. There is a wonderful bibliography, too, for further reading on specific subjects, and a helpful index. My only complaint is Rudolph's battery-powered blinking nose built into the hard cover, which not only raises the price of the book but results in a poor quality binding that is not durable. This book should be a "keeper", but the eccentric binding probably limits its life span. That is a shame.