BOOK REVIEW: Pinball Science by Ian Graham

Media Update | 2 September 2016 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: Pinball Science by Ian Graham

Crows Nest
August 2016
Hardcover, $29.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

Popular Science

8/10

This combination of activity and reference book is a great way for kids to learn about science and for grownups to refresh the things they learnt in school, while having a bit of fun.

With this book packed with explanations and experiments, you can build and play your very own pinball machine, then get to grips with amazing ideas like gravity, force and acceleration.

As a twenty-nine year old, I had far too much fun putting this machine together, and more fun still in the playing of it. The 19 pages that explore the science behind pinball (after 9 pages of instructions to put the machine together) are fun and bright, with engaging pictures and relatively few words on each page, rendering them suitable for the suggested 7+ age group.

I did, however, in the making of the machine, come across some pieces that were a little too big for the spaces they were meant to fit, and others that were a little too flexible in areas they were meant to be fixed solidly, so I would advise having an adult on hand with a stanley knife and some super glue (for the respective issues), and be sure to refer back to the diagram on page 5 while you’re assembling it.

But in the end, you will have your very own, working pinball machine, and that’s something you can appreciate whether you’re nine or… well, older than that by decades… so long as you’re young at heart!