One sentence summary
Randall Munroe’s Thing Explainer is a tongue-in-cheek book that explains complex scientific concepts with only the 1000 or so most common English words.
Book genre
Infotainment
Main topic of the book
Science and Technology
Key Ideas
The main ideas behind Thing Explainer are to simplify complex scientific and technological concepts for non-experts and to highlight the underlying simpler components that make the universe as we know it today.
Main parts of the book and a short summary
Thing Explainer is divided into four sections: air, space, minds and bodies, and movement. In the first section, Munroe gives readers a simplified explanation of the inner workings of airplanes, helicopters and rockets. In the second section, he discusses topics like the sun, the solar system and the universe. The third section focuses on minds and bodies and provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the human body and mind. In the last section he explains everything from nuclear power plants to cars and boats.
Key Takeaways
By selecting only the 1000 or so most widely used English words, readers can gain an understanding of how the physical world is constructed simple. By translating complex scientific subjects into layman terms, we can gain a better appreciation of our human impact on the physical environment.
Author’s background and qualifications
Randall Munroe is best known for his webcomic, xkcd, which deals with humor and computer science. He has an undergraduate degree in Physics from Christopher Newport University and a Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Target Audience
Thing Explainer is intended for everyone from fifth grade students to people interested in science and technology. It is a fun and lighthearted way to learn about complicated subjects.
Publisher and first publication date
It was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2015.