Chad Orzel’s “How to Teach Physics to Your Dog,” an attempt to explain quantum physics to the average reader, is now on the shelf at major retailers like Barnes & Noble and Borders, and it has captured the attention of podcasters and book reviewers.
“Writing this book is the weirdest thing that’s happened to me,” said Orzel, associate professor of physics. “I could have imagined writing a popular science book, but having it be about talks with my dog, Emmy, was not something I could have foreseen working.”
But make no bones about it, work it did.
“In every chapter Emmy seizes on some aspect of quantum physics, not necessarily understanding it correctly, and then I describe how the principle really works,” Orzel said.
One of Orzel’s favorite exchanges occurs in chapter nine, in which Emmy, a German Shepherd mix, eagerly waits for bunnies made of cheese to appear in the back yard. Because particles can be created out of empty space (in a sense), and because it might somehow be possible for these particles to form cheese bunnies, Emmy is certain tasty snacks will materialize any moment.
Orzel patiently explains that this isn’t very likely, and even if it were, such particles would only last 10-52 seconds before being annihilated (to satisfy the energy-time uncertainty relationship). And that, he points out, would make catching a cheddar cottontail difficult. Emmy remains optimistic, though, insisting she’s very fast.
It’s conversations like this one, originally posted on Orzel’s blog, Uncertain Principles, which got the book ball rolling.
“At home, I carry on elaborate conversations with Emmy because it makes my wife laugh,” Orzel said. “And some of these conversations involve physics and end up on my blog.”
The “Many Worlds, Many Treats” post got picked up by a big blog where 50,000 people read it. One reader was an enterprising agent who thought it was a great idea for a book.
“So I wrote up a proposal, and Scribner bought it,” Orzel said.
Writing about physics has not only helped him deepen his own understanding of the subject and become a better teacher, it’s also allowed Orzel to bring science to readers.
“We have a problem today in that most modern science is conducted through publications average people can’t read,” he said. “We need to communicate science more broadly because if the public doesn’t see science as important, the National Science Foundation might be the first thing that’s cut when we have a financial crisis.
“This is serious because a lot of the challenges we’re facing – like climate change and pandemic disease – are fundamentally scientific. To understand and tackle these issues, we all need to know some science.”
To learn more about Ozel’s book, click here.
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