About This Curious Book!

Why Stuff Falls Down is the story of how we have understood gravity, from the time of the ancient Greeks right up to current efforts to unify Einstein’s gravity with quantum mechanics.

This book is written for the curious high-schooler, adult, or advanced middle-schooler. No knowledge of science is assumed, but key moments and concepts in science are revealed!

Along the way, you’ll see how science grew from its ancient roots to become today’s powerhouse, which has conquered gravity to send probes to the farthest planets of our solar system, tamed electricity, created lasers — and lets us share cute cat videos on the Internet.

This little book is written in clear, straightforward language, not nerdy jargon. How did science get to be the way it is today? 

  • How did we go from thinking everything was made out of earth, water, fire, air, and æther — to gaining mastery over the atom? 
  • How did we come to see matter and force as “fields” and “particles”?
  • And why does stuff fall down?

BONUS: Relativity and quantum mechanics in plain English? Ya gotta read it to believe it.

The “Chapter 1” “Chapter 2” “Chapter 3″… pages in this website contain:

  • A brief description of that chapter.
  • Half of the chapters have a video demonstrating the you-can-do-this-at-home activity for that chapter. Those videos are embedded in these chapter pages.
  • Almost all chapters have reference numbers scattered throughout the text. Links to those numbered references are gathered at the end of each chapter in the book. Those links are repeated in the chapter pages on this website for your convenience.