I'm going for a full on geek-out with this week's Ladybird Tuesday and a book that I'm pretty sure even Professor Brian Cox would approve of - 'How it works' The Rocket.
The 'How it works' series (series 654 in case you're wondering) was the perfect series for any little budding engineers. It basically explained exactly how objects worked and covered everything from the household television through to Farm Machinery. There's plenty of detail, but all written in a simple style so that children could easily follow it.
Now, bearing in mind that I did A-level physics a (cough) few years ago, and a whole degree in engineering, you really would have thought that I should have known most of what was in this book. But I'm ashamed to say that I didn't. Maybe that's just the dumbing down of the British education system since this was written in 1967, but I'm pretty sure that this book is somewhat more advanced that most physics GCSEs and A-levels.
Whilst it's not fine-detail technology nor full of equations, there is a huge amount of description as to how (and why) the rocket works in the way that it does. Differences between aircraft and rockets are covered as background, along with Newton's third law of motion (To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) before the book goes on to look at all the different elements that make up the rocket in turn. There are even comparisons with how things work in the motor car and a cross-reference to the book in the series covering the car.
Once again I'm left blown away at just how much detail they've included in this book and also slightly worried at just how much I don't know. Yet another series that I think I ought to try to collect all of the kids to read when they're older. I'm sure the same information is probably out there on the Internet, but I'm still a paper lover!
If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!
I've also compiled an index of all the Ladybird Tuesday posts to date - organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too!
