Opus – Page 178 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

Physics for Entertainment

Published in 1913, a best-seller in the 1930s and long out of print, Physics for Entertainment was translated from Russian into many languages and influenced science students around the world. Among them was Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman, the Russian mathematician (unrelated to the author), who solved the Poincaré conjecture, and who was awarded and rejected the Fields Medal. Grigori's father, an electrical engineer, gave him Physics for Entertainment to encourage his son's interest in mathematics. In the foreword, the book’s author describes the contents as “conundrums, brain-teasers, entertaining anecdotes, and unexpected comparisons,” adding, “I have quoted extensively from Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Mark Twain and other writers, because, besides providing entertainment, the fantastic experiments these writers describe may well serve as instructive illustrations at physics classes.” The book’s topics included how to jump from a moving car, and why, “according to the law of buoyancy, we would never drown in the Dead Sea.”

The Moscow Puzzles

This book has been a classic in the former Soviet Union since it was first published in 1956, and it remains just as entertaining today. A master at making math fun for his high school students, Boris Kordemsky loaded this clever collection with a wide variety of math and logic related games and puzzles dealing with magic squares, tricky weights and measures, properties of numbers, mathematical tricks, and more.

Minar-e-Pakistan

Minar-e-Pakistan is a tall minaret in Iqbal Park Lahore, built in commemoration of the Pakistan Resolution. The minaret reflects a blend of Mughal and modern architecture, and is constructed on the site where on March 23, 1940, seven years before the formation of Pakistan, the Muslim League passed the Pakistan Resolution.

Miller House

The Miller House was designed by Eero Saarinen in 1957 and is an important residential representation of the International Style. Of equal significance, the landscape of the Miller House, designed by famed landscape architect Dan Kiley, was one of the first and most important Modern designs in residential landscape architecture.

Luis Barragán

Luis Barragán is considered the most important Mexican architect of the 20th century. A unique feature, as can be seen in many of his residential interiors and fountain features, is the typical tall coloured walls, which he borrowed and modified from traditional Mexican buildings. He situated many of his designs amidst natural backdrops, such as lava rock outcrops and groves of trees.

Het Loo Palace

Het Loo Palace is a palace in the Netherlands. The private garden is situated in the back. It is often mislabeled the Versailles of Holland but actually serves to show more differences than similarities.

Villa Garzoni

Villa Garzoni is a villa in Tuscany. The water garden is constructed at the foot of a series of balustraded terraces and a suite of grand symmetrical staircases connecting the lower water gardens at the base of the hill, with the house, the cascade, the teatro di verdura and other garden features above.

Villa Oliva

The building was commissioned by the Buonvisi family at the end of the 15th century and built by Matteo Civitali (1436-1501). A legend reports of a bet between a Buonvisi and the King of France Louis XIV. The Buonvisi claimed that his stable was more beautiful than any of the rooms of Versailles. The French Ambassador to the Republic of Lucca was sent by the king to visit the Buonvisi stable and verify that claim. Before the visit Buonvisi had ordered the entire stable to be covered with French gold coins showing the effigy of Louis XIV. The ambassador had to confirm the claim back to Paris and Buonvisi won his bet.

Gaspar van Wittel

Gaspar van Wittel was a Dutch landscape painter.

Grotta dello Smeraldo

The Grotta dello Smeraldo is a sea cave that is flooded with a brilliant blue or emerald light. The quality and nature of the color in each cave is determined by the unique lighting conditions in that particular cave. The grotto, which is located along Italy’s Amalfi Coast, is partly filled with water. The surface area of the water measures roughly 45 x 32 meters, with a cavern roof about 24 meters above water level. Unlike the more famous Blue Grotto a few miles to the west on Capri, the Grotta dello Smeraldo has no natural outlet above the waterline. The only opening to the outside world is just below the water level. Refracted sunlight entering the cavern through the opening gives the water its characteristic emerald glow during daylight hours.