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Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words

Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words

Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
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Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words Hardback - 2015

by Randall Munroe

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  • Hardback
Used - Very good

Description

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, November 2015. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. A little shelf worn but looks unread. Dust jacket has a 1 inch by 1/2 inch stain along the bottom edge of the front cover. Interior of the book and the boards are not impacted. The boards are printed with the same images that the dust jacket has on it.
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Details

  • Title Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
  • Author Randall Munroe
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition F First Edition
  • Condition Used - Very good
  • Pages 64
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York
  • Publication date November 2015
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Annotated, Illustrated, Maps
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 61955
  • ISBN 9780544668256 / 0544668251
  • Weight 1.8 lbs (0.82 kg)
  • Dimensions 13.3 x 9.4 x 0.7 in (33.78 x 23.88 x 1.78 cm)
  • Category Technology & Industrial Arts
  • Library of Congress subjects Miscellanea, Science
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2016449258
  • Dewey Decimal Code 500
  • Quantity available 1

About Book People Virginia, United States

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Book People RVA has been serving readers around the world since 1980. Known as the Richmond metro-area book provider for those who prefer a warm, customer-focused buying experience, Book People offers new and used fiction and non-fiction titles and many literary genres. No matter the interaction--through its new store conveniently located in Henrico's far West End or online, customers experience the friendly and rapid service that has convinced so many buyers over the years to use Book People for all their book purchases. We fulfill orders requested via email, online, or telephone, and we accept special orders such as out-of-print books, international mail orders, and titles from boutique publishers. Book People has long had a strong community presence and sponsors several book clubs and numerous book and author events. The store supports educators and provides them a 20% discount. As part of its advocacy for free speech, Book People takes a stand against book banning and keeps an up-to-date display of books currently under threat in schools and libraries across the country. Our history: Book People founder Ruth Erb first opened the store at an earlier incarnation of the Willow Lawn shopping center. Because she loved books, loved working with people, and wanted to combine the two, she called her new store Book People. In 1986, Erb moved the store to Granite Avenue in the Westhampton part of Richmond, where it did a brisk business. Former store employee David Shuman purchased Book People from Erb in 2018, and he has recently relocated the store to larger quarters in the Gleneagles shopping center in western Henrico.

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Summary

Have you ever tried to learn more about some incredible thing, only to be frustrated by incomprehensible jargon? Randall Munroe is here to help. In Thing Explainer, he uses line drawings and only the thousand (or, rather, ten hundred ) most common words to provide simple explanations for some of the most interesting stuff there is, including: food-heating radio boxes (microwaves) tall roads (bridges) computer buildings (datacenters) the shared space house (the International Space Station) the other worlds around the sun (the solar system) the big flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates) the pieces everything is made of (the periodic table) planes with turning wings (helicopters) boxes that make clothes smell better (washers and dryers) the bags of stuff inside you (cells) How do these things work? Where do they come from? What would life be like without them? And what would happen if we opened them up, heated them up, cooled them down, pointed them in a different direction, or pressed this button? In Thing Explainer, Munroe gives us the answers to these questions and so many more. Funny, interesting, and always understandable, this book is for anyone age 5 to 105 who has ever wondered how things work, and why.

Reader reviews for Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words

From the publisher

Have you ever tried to learn more about some incredible thing, only to be frustrated by incomprehensible jargon? Randall Munroe is here to help. In Thing Explainer, he uses line drawings and only the thousand (or, rather, "ten hundred") most common words to provide simple explanations for some of the most interesting stuff there is, including:
  • food-heating radio boxes (microwaves)
  • tall roads (bridges)
  • computer buildings (datacenters)
  • the shared space house (the International Space Station)
  • the other worlds around the sun (the solar system)
  • the big flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates)
  • the pieces everything is made of (the periodic table)
  • planes with turning wings (helicopters)
  • boxes that make clothes smell better (washers and dryers)
  • the bags of stuff inside you (cells)

How do these things work? Where do they come from? What would life be like without them? And what would happen if we opened them up, heated them up, cooled them down, pointed them in a different direction, or pressed this button? In Thing Explainer, Munroe gives us the answers to these questions and so many more. Funny, interesting, and always understandable, this book is for anyone--age 5 to 105--who has ever wondered how things work, and why.

From the jacket flap

From the creator of the webcomicxkcdand author of the #1New York TimesbestsellerWhat If?, a series of brilliantly and simply! annotated blueprints that explain everything from nuclear bombs to ballpoint pens

Have you ever tried to learn more about some incredible thing, only to be frustrated by incomprehensible jargon? Randall Munroe is here to help. In Thing Explainer, he uses line drawings and only the thousand (or, rather, ten hundred ) most common words to provide simple explanations for some of the most interesting stuff there is, including:
  • food-heating radio boxes (microwaves)
  • tall roads (bridges)
  • computer buildings (datacenters)
  • the shared space house (the International Space Station)
  • the other worlds around the sun (the solar system)
  • the big flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates)
  • the pieces everything is made of (the periodic table)
  • planes with turning wings (helicopters)
  • boxes that make clothes smell better (washers and dryers)
  • the bags of stuff inside you (cells)
How do these things work? Where do they come from? What would life be like without them? And what would happen if we opened them up, heated them up, cooled them down, pointed them in a different direction, or pressed this button? InThing Explainer, Munroe gives us the answers to these questions and so many more. Funny, interesting, and always understandable, this book is for anyone age 5 to 105 who has ever wondered how things work, and why.
"

Media reviews

Citations

  • Entertainment Weekly, 12/11/2015, Page 65

About the author

Randall Munroe is the author of the New York Times bestseller What If?, the science question-and-answer blog What If?, and the popular webcomic xkcd. In 2006, he left a job building robots at NASA to draw comics on the Internet full-time. He lives in Massachusetts.
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