How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
How To Teach Physics To Your Dog is a pop-science book by blogger Chad Orzel, which explains quantum physics through a series of dialogues between the author and his dog Emmy. Yes, it's as funny as it sounds.
Tropes used in How to Teach Physics to Your Dog include:
- Adaptation Expansion: The book started out as a Rabbit Hole Day blog post.
- Author Avatar: The author is one of the two major characters in the dialogues.
- The Ditz: Emmy, who goes looking for steak from alternate universes, waits for bunnies made of cheese to spontaneously appear in her backyard, and can be distracted from anything with a simple, "Look! A squirrel!"
- Honest John's Dealership: The evil squirrels selling zero-point energy generators and "enhanced water".
- Instructional Dialogue: Between the author and Emmy.
- Mr. Exposition: The Author Avatar naturally assumes this role.
- Shout-Out
- To Discworld: The phrase "because of Quantum" pops up occasionally, as does the idea that Schrodinger's cat has three possible states: Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.
- To Star Trek: The evil alternate-universe squirrels feel the need to wear fake goatees; also, the Star Trek transporter gets constantly name-checked in the quantum teleportation chapter.
- To Godel Escher Bach, or possibly to Zen Buddhism in general: Emmy constantly insists that she has Buddha-nature.
- Talking Animal: Emmy.
- The Watson: Emmy again.