Reviewed by Teri Cosentino
6th-7th grade science teacher
The book shines across the spectrum and teaches the reader about light’s many properties. It illuminates the path between light and matter, focusing in on reflection, refraction/dispersion, and light speed.
The best chapters explain light as a wave and as a particle. This book connects the past and present theories of light. It explains in no–nonsense terms and real life applications the hows, the whats, and the whys of light theory. Building the timeline of Einstein, Panck, Maxwell, Hertz, and other physicists’ theories, it tells the story of the relatively recent discovery of the nature of light. Pretty cool stuff!
As a teacher of middle school students, I found this book to be a very readable and quite exciting report of light, a source we use but take for granted. The concepts are explained simply yet eloquently and in depth. I would use this book as a resource to be read and discussed in class as my students grasp something that is within their reach and a part of their life.
Review posted on 1/4/2013
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