About the Book

Pachydemonia

A scientific fairytale about the amazing and improbable adventures of a Maxwell Demon in Pumpkin Valley, beyond the High Hills.

Annotation

The book teaches young readers (age 11+) the secrets of thermodynamics and astrophysics in an entertaining and understandable way. For example, it answers questions like “why is the sky blue?” and “how can we weigh the Earth?” as well as explaining why stars twinkle at night and why we have high and low tides. Pachydemonia is a fantastic story about real adventures in physics. The heroes are a young Maxwell Demon (named after a thought experiment by the physicist James Clark Maxwell) called Dima, his friends Tumble and Butterball the talking hamsters, and the extraordinary Elephants who create chaos everywhere they go – known as the Chaos Pachyderms.

The story begins when Dima, who like all Maxwell Demons can change one law of nature for a short period of time, finds himself in peaceful Pumpkin Valley, far from his home. He soon meets Tumble, Butterball, and their friends and neighbours, whom he has to rescue many times from the hungry Greywolf in the Darkwood. Every chapter turns into an adventure in a specific aspect of physics – including gravity, solutions, diffusion, and binary stars – as Dima’s strange ability changes everyday objects for better – or worse! Ultimately, however, Dima places the whole valley at risk of disaster when by trying to get home, he creates a deadly Black Hole. Should Dima risk his friends’ lives – or sacrifice his own?

Pachydemonia is the first book in a trilogy. The next two books explore quantum physics, relativity theory, and nuclear physics through more adventures with Dima and his friends.

Illustrations

The illustrations used in the book and website are by the very talented artist, Polina Laufer.