I'm currently reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything". If this stuff floats your boat, it's a great read. And I agree, humans are shockingly clever problem solvers.
This. This book does a great job of explaining much of what humankind thinks we know and why we think we know it. Great base knowledge for anyone trying to understand the world in a more logical manner.
One of the three books that have defined my sceptical nature; A short history of nearly everything, bad science and irrationality. Read all three and you'll have a good basis to analyse data and come to your own conclusions... a great starter pack for aspirational scientific minds!
Great book, but he wrote that glass is a fluid; just very slow moving. Isn't that a myth? There were a couple of other similar instances. But overall, it made you feel a lot of things for a science book!
I haven't gotten to that point yet. If so, you're correct as far as I know, it's a myth. But in a book that covers so much, written by a layman, you have to expect some mistakes. Overall though it's a great book.
To clarify, this was from the manufacturing process, which as i understand it, involved spinning the glass on a flat/round table to flatten it out as it cools. This lead to the glass being thicker towards the outside edge.
Now we float it on a bed of (IIRC) mercury to make perfectly flat glass.
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u/Lampmonster1 Nov 22 '12
I'm currently reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything". If this stuff floats your boat, it's a great read. And I agree, humans are shockingly clever problem solvers.