VJOURNAL SMART BOOK · Volume I · People and the elements
Everything about everything
What does a person feel deep under water, on a mountain, in orbit, in a storm, in heat and cold? Five chapters with living 3D pictures.
Start readingEveryone has wondered what it would feel like. What does a person feel deep under the sea? How thin is the air on top of Everest? What happens to an astronaut's body in a few months without weight? This book answers these questions one by one, with real numbers and the physics and biology behind them.
Every chapter has five moments. Beside the text you see a living 3D picture that you can turn with your finger or mouse, and under it a sandbox with a slider: change the depth, the height, the orbit or the temperature and watch the numbers change. Each chapter ends with three facts, a short quiz and its sources.
Contents
- 01Deep under the waterFrom the surface to the Mariana Trench, 0–11,000 mThe deeper you go, the more water sits on top of you and the harder it presses. Every 10 metres adds about one more atmosphere. At the bottom of the deepest trench it is about 1,100 times the pressure at the surface.
- 02High on a mountainFrom sea level to the summit of Everest, 0–8,849 mHigh in the mountains the air is thinner, so each breath brings less oxygen. On top of Everest there is only about a third of the oxygen pressure you have at the sea. Water there boils at about 70 degrees, not 100.
- 03In orbitThe International Space Station, about 400 km upAstronauts float because they are falling all the time, but they move sideways so fast that they keep missing the Earth. Without weight the body changes: the face puffs up and bones get thinner, so they exercise every day.
- 04In a thunderstormStorm cloud, flash and thunderLightning is a giant spark made inside a storm cloud. It heats the air so fast that the air bangs: that bang is thunder. Count the seconds between the flash and the bang, divide by three, and you get the distance in kilometres.
- 05In heat and in coldBody temperature, wind chill and world recordsYour body works best at about 37 degrees. In the heat it sweats to cool down, in the cold it shivers to make heat. Wind makes cold feel colder, and damp air makes heat feel hotter.
VITON13 LAB
Keep studying on the LAB table
Open the chapter's experiment, timeline or map on VITON13 LAB, with your notes as a document beside it.
Open VITON13 LABAbout this book
What is the Everything about everything textbook?
It is an animated textbook that explains how the human body meets the forces of nature: water pressure, thin air, weightlessness, lightning, heat and cold. Each chapter starts with a question a curious person would ask and answers it with a living 3D picture, a short text with real numbers and a sandbox you can change yourself.
Are the numbers in the sandboxes real?
Yes. They use standard formulas and measured values: pressure rises by about 1 atmosphere every 10 metres of sea water, orbital speed comes from v = √(GM/r), the speed of sound from the air temperature, and wind chill from the North American and UK formula. Results are rounded and marked with the word about.
Does the book teach diving, climbing or spaceflight?
No. It explains why the body reacts the way it does and repeats only general safety facts, for example that a thunderstorm is a reason to go indoors. Diving, climbing and any other risky activity must be learned with a qualified instructor and proper equipment.
Who is this textbook for?
It is written for readers from about twelve years old: pupils who like to ask why, students who want a picture to go with the formulas, and adults who still wonder about the sea or the sky. Every chapter has a short version that a nine-year-old can follow.