Parts were good, but overall, a lot has changed in ~60 years to make this book more of a historical piece than a superb physics text.

Bookmarked ideas

• As molecules evaporate, they are leaving with more energy than the average motion of the liquid they depart. Conversely, when vapour from the air joins a liquid, there is a sudden great attraction as the molecule approaches the surface, resulting in energy added. Therefore, evaporation is the loss of heat, and consensation is the the generation of some back. When these are net equal, there is no heat exchange. However, this is a nifty thing to know when cooling hot liquids. i.e., blow on hot soup.
• Carbon attracts oxygen (C-O) much more than O-O or C-C. So much so, that when they come together, they snap together with such force that excess energy is distributed to their surroundings. This of course is burning, and the sensation of heat. In certain circumstances, the excess energy is given off more than molecular motion of hot gas. The energy is so great, that it generates light. This is how one gets flames!
• “What keeps electrons from simply falling in[to the nucleus]? This principle: If they were in the nucleus, we would know their position precisely, and the uncertainty principle would then require that they have a very large (but uncertain) momentum (and therefore energy). With this energy, they’d break away from the nucleus. They make a compromise: they leave themselves a little room for this uncertainty and then jiggle with a certain amount of minimum motion in accordance with this rule.

Cavendish’s experiment (aka, the weighing of the earth)

“If there is a force between any pair of objects, we ought to be able to measure the force between our own objects… It was first measured by Cavendish… demonstrating the direct force between two large, fixed balls of lead and two smaller balls of lead on the ends of an arm supported by a very fine fiber, called a torsion fiber. By measuring how much the fiber gets twisted, once can measure the strength of the force, verify that it is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, and determine how strong it is. Thus, one may accurately determine the coefficient G in our gravitational force equation. By knowing G from this experiement, and by knowing how strongly the earth attracts, we indirectly learned the mass of the earth!”

It was experiments like this that, and the simplicity of the mathematics that garnered peoples interest in science.

3/5.