Science Culture Technology Publishing: Singapore, 1998. 113 pp. ISBN 981-04-0648-7. $34.95. Available from Educational Innovations, Inc. Phone: 888/912-7474; Web: http://www.teachersource.com.
In this book, Rämme attempts to create the perfect combination of experiments involving bubbles and educational information about the workings of experiments presented in the 13 short chapters. In the introduction, he informs the reader that the purpose of his book is to do something about the lack of "instructive experiments and demonstrations using soap bubbles and soap films." He successfully provides wonderful and thorough descriptions and explanations for why bubbles, in his experiments, behave the way they do.
However, the experiments are obscured within the context of each chapter, making it unclear exactly what the experiment is. Perhaps if Rämme had devoted as much care and attention to the experimental procedures as he spends on the explanations, they would have been more clear.
Several very nice illustrations and color photographs accompany each chapter. It is interesting to see many paintings done during the 1700-1900s incorporating bubbles within the subject matter. Every chapter opens with a quote from a famous person and ends with a long list of "bubble" references. Rämme may fall short of accomplishing his goal of creating a book that gives useful bubble demonstrations and experiments, but he knows his "soap bubbles and soap films" well, which makes this book a good source of information.
|