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The Mad Scientist Handbook: How to Make Your Own Rock Candy, Antigravity Machine, Edible Glass, Rubber Eggs, Fake Blood, Green Slime, and Much Much More | 
 enlarge | Author: Joey Green
Publisher: Topeka Bindery
Category: Book
Buy New: $22.75
New (1) Used (3) from $17.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 2194509
Media: School & Library Binding
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0613260910
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.8
EAN: 9780613260916
ASIN: 0613260910
Publication Date: September 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Hey, Einstein! You don't have to be a genius to entertain and educate kids at the same time. Just give 'em The Mad Scientist Handbook--the greatest collection of creepy crafts, insane inventions, and freaky experiments ever devised. Packed with easy-to-understand instructions and simple illustrations, this engaging activity book will show kids how to:
Make oozing green slime
Build a high-speed balloon car
Cook up delicious edible glass
Create a tornado machine
Build an exploding volcano
Pass an egg through the neck of a bottle without breaking it
and much more!
Plus, they'll learn lots of weird facts along the way, like how every experiment in this book works and who figured it out first. It's the perfect handbook for every budding mad scientist.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Debunk this September 4, 2007
The only value a science teacher could find in the is book is the ample opportunity to debunk so much of the nonsense and to correct the errors. For example, in one place the author says: "Trillions of [cosmic ray] particles pass through the earth's atmosphere every few minutes. Three to six cosmic ray particles strike each square inch of the earth's atmosphere every second." Do the math! I estimate he is off by a factor of one-hundred billion. He says: "Lava ... reaches temperatures up to ten times hotter than boiling water." Do a little checking! Clearly he doesn't understand the relative nature of the common temperature scales. I could go on and on, but I mainly just wanted to help drag down the rating.
 Disappointing: Fun, but wrong. September 23, 2004
45 out of 48 found this review helpful
I was considering this book, among others, for use in a course for future high school science teachers. The directions are simple, and the book is definitely pitched to the short attention span. But I was dismayed at several instances of simply and obviously wrong statements: it is clear that the author has failed to do even the most cursory fact-checking in his "Bizarre Facts." (Unless maybe being wrong is what makes a fact "bizzare"?)
Three examples: First, in the "Balloon in a Bottle" experiment, the author claims that "...as the height above sea level increases, the temperature required to boil water also increases, making it difficult to bring water to a boil at high altitudes." This is exactly wrong: water boils at a lower, not higher, temperature at higher altitudes; among other things, this makes some foods take longer to cook than at sea level, because foods that contain lots of water will be cooking at a lower temperature. Shame on the author and the publisher for getting this extremely basic principle wrong.
Second, in at least two experiments, the author includes false statements about things rotating differently in the northern and southern hemispheres. The claim that the rotation of the earth determines the direction water spirals as it drains from a toilet or bathtub, while false, is deeply entrenched; it is unfortunate but not terribly surprising to see that brought up again. (There's a great article on myths based on the Coriolis effect at http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.htm and it includes a link to a nice page of info for teachers.) But the worse transgression is in the "Paper Helicopter" experiment; here he claims that the rotation of the helicopter will switch below the equator, which is just goofy--essentially the same as claiming that a real helicopter would have to spin its rotor the opposite direction to fly in South America. I was kind of embarrassed for him on that one.
Third (and this is admittedly a minor quibble), he claims that the sparks emitted by wintergreen life savers are due to shattering the crystals of methylsalicylate (wintergreen flavor). In fact it's the crystals of sugar; most hard sugar candy will display this effect. It's just made more dramatic by the methylsalicylate, which fluoresces. (There are several websites addressing this phenomenon. For example, see http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-22-5171806.html or do your own search.)
Those are just the first three that jumped out at me, ones I knew were wrong without having to look them up. I haven't bothered to start a more systematic process of double-checking the assertions of which I'm merely skeptical. For heaven's sake don't quote any of the "Bizarre Facts," or use the information for homework or a science project, without checking on them--the author clearly didn't bother, in spite of how simple it would have been to do so. I wouldn't use this book in a classroom, and I cannot recommend it to a nonscientist; it contains too much misinformation.
 Science Teacher Recommendation November 30, 2003
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
Smokebombs, stink bombs, slime and other gross interesting things fill this book. There are litterally hundred of interesting facts that go with each experiment. Don't worry about not doing well in chemistry, the directions are simple and the experiments are safe when the directions are followed.
 Some good ideas... November 5, 2003
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
I liked some of the ideas. I like the interesting facts, and found the science explanations are accurate and very complete. I like the choice of experiments, and most of them are fun. (although I'm not sure all of them are especially safe for the younger mad scientist set), but I was disappointed that a decent number of the experiments simply don't work. I understand there's a margin of error, but as an adult (and a science teacher), When I can't make experiments work, I pity the poor children with the book.
How to Cause Mayhem and Get in Trouble December 29, 2002
19 out of 31 found this review helpful
Some of these "science experiments" are simple and relatively harmless. Others provide unsupervised children with recipes for disaster. The book should come with a child-proof cover or a trigger-lock. Not that it contains plans for thermonuclear devices, but several of the projects can damage property or cause injury if not properly carried out.While each project has a set of fascinating "scientific" tidbits & trivia to go with it, the book is almost entirely lacking in helping children understand or use the scientific method or understand much of the basis for what they are doing. This is a "Mad Scientists' Club" handbook, just a several steps short of the Anarchists' Cookbook, but headed in that general direction. On the other hand, parents may find themselves reliving their own nerdy & awkward years helping their children be "mad scientists." It could be great fun. But keep the book locked up. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!
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