Physics Around the Clock - Michael Banks *****

One of the easiest ways to make science accessible is to tie it to everyday life - and this is something Michael Banks does well in his exploration of physical goings on from breakfast to bedtime.

Each of twelve chapters focuses on an aspect of our non-working/sleeping time. We begin with the morning coffee, take on the physics of breakfast food and so on, travelling through the day to end up in front of the TV show or film. I was impressed by just how much Banks could get from the simple (or, rather, anything but simple) extraction of a cup of coffee from ground coffee beans. One of the very first topics covered here was a fascinating surprise - how static electricity developed during the grinding process (a phenomenon not unlike the lightning produced by volcanoes) causes grounds to clump, and how baristas use a drop of water to overcome this.

There were plenty of such revelations, whether it was the optics of a fishbowl that can make fish disappear or the scientific complexities of cooking (and cutting) the perfect pizza. There were a couple of chapters that were personally not as interesting as the rest - one on plants and another on sport, which probably illustrates that there are bits of 'everyday living' that don't appeal to everyone. but as each will have their own particular interests, this is neither surprising nor a problem.

One chapter, on friends and family, seemed to stretch the definition of physics somewhat - it was mostly maths and sociology - but it was still interesting, so who cares? Overall the combination of the range of different topics in the twelve chapters and the number of fascinating topics that Banks manages to incorporate in what is based on a series of columns in the Institute of Physics magazine Physics World is thoroughly enjoyable.

This isn't the first such book - for example, Helen Czerski's excellent Storm in a Teacup from 2017 was also a 'physics of everyday life' title and inevitably there's a degree of overlap. But Banks has a different tone and introduces plenty of newly explained phenomena, making it an ideal dip into everyday physics.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

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