Julius Sumner Miller (1909–1987)

I do not consider JSM a great educator, he was too much of the opinionated bully for that. He was also not a great innovator, almost all of his demonstrations were old hat, many of the hydrostatics ones were already known to the classical Greeks. However this is a very good collection of physics demonstrations, with simple instructions on making them work. I have my doubts on some, such as the observation that a can of hot water freezes faster than a can of cold water when both are put in the freezer.

On a positive note I do like the question of where to kick a piece of wood lying in the road if you want it to move with no rotation (i.e. pure translation). No-one ever gets it right, and you can verify it yourself in the back yard. You kick it 2/3 of the way along it's length. Totally non-obvious.… (más)