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Steve Silverman
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Einstein's Refrigerator and Other Stories from Flip Side Of Paperback – May 15, 2001

by Steve Silverman (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 151 ratings
See all formats and editions
Steve Silverman was looking for a way to add some spice to his high school lectures when he realized that weird and bizarre true-life stories would capture his students' attention. In fact, they worked so well that the science teacher then began posting his discoveries to his own Web site, which he dubbed Useless Information. Well-researched and clearly sourced, Silverman's unusual tidbits have gained a wide following.

In Einstein's Refrigerator, Silverman collects more than 30 of the most fascinating stories he has gathered--tales of forgotten genius, great blunders, and incredible feats of survival, as well as answers to puzzling questions.

Einstein's Refrigerator is a remarkable book with spellbinding stories. Whatever happened to the refrigerator Einstein helped invent? While it never became a commercial success, its underlying concepts became the basis for cooling nuclear breeder reactors.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Andrews McMeel Publishing
  4. Publication date
    May 15, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0740714198
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0740714191
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
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Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steve Silverman teaches earth science, physics, and computer science at Chatham High School near Albany, N.Y. An inventor with more than 100 inventions to his credit, Steve also maintains a Web site, Useless Information (www.uselessinformation.org), has won numerous awards, including Yahoo's Site of the Week.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Andrews McMeel Publishing; 0 edition (May 15, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0740714198
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0740714191
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 151 ratings

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Steve Silverman

Steve Silverman

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
151 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JustJan
5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone Needs to Peek in Einstein's Refrigerator!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2011
Verified Purchase
Everyone needs to peek in Einstein's Refrigerator. It is frivolous, fantastic, freaky and fun. The short accounts of bizarre but true tales are educational and entertaining. From stories so gross that you can't help gagging - to tales so silly that you will laugh aloud - people will want to know what you are reading. AND YOU will WANT to tell them! These weird details are too crazy to keep to yourself!
There are so many fun facts that are just too peculiar to be true and absolutely amazing that they are! It is easy to become addicted! It is a fabulous collection of absolutely nothing yet it is all superfluously important! You never know what you will find in Einstein's Refrigerator!
One person found this helpful
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Dennis Blanchard
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read for young people
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2011
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Steve Silverman does a nice job of combining interesting stories with a learning experience. I'm an avid reader of science, political and research topics and found that many of his stories I have seen over the years. However, a young reader has probably not, so for that target audience this is a perfect work.

The book is written in a light, at times, tongue-in-cheek fashion-- a style that will no doubt appeal to younger readers. I actually felt that the book would find more of a reading audience at the middle-school (7th and 8th grade) reader level than high school.

The topics are varied and never dull. Silverman has a way of animating the characters and bringing them to life. Admittedly, animating an engineer can be a chore at times ( I speak from experience here) and he does a good job. A few of the characters are ripe for the picking of course, but in the end, they all get their day in the sun.

This book would be a good lead-in to finding topics for young readers to seek out more stories and further reading.

Dennis "K1"
2 people found this helpful
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An Avid Reader
3.0 out of 5 stars Good choice for young readers
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2011
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A curious child between 8-14 years old would love this book. The writing is clearly directed to a young audience. While the information was interesting, the sophomoric writing style made it difficult for me to enjoy the content. I would recommend reading a free sample of the book before committing to a purchase.
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Ed Pegg Jr
5.0 out of 5 stars Some great factoids in here
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2011
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There are some stories so cool that everyone should read them. One is the story of homeless man Michael Malloy, a very durable drunkard. A Murder Trust picked him for easy insurance money, and gave him an unlimited bar tab, thinking he would drink himself to death. When that didn't work, they moved up to poisons, spoiled food, freezing him, and hitting him with cars. But he kept coming back for free drinks.

The author mentions this would be a good Hollywood story, but it's already been used as an episode of Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" (One For the Road).

He also writes up the Citicorp Tower story -- it was designed improperly, and turned out to be unstable in high winds of the sort that occur once a decade. A student figured it out. The tower's problems were corrected with extra stability plates and a large damper. This story was used as the basis of a "Numb3rs" episode (Structural Corruption).

Every single story is true and interesting, and the author writes well. Many of the stories will be familiar to a person who collects odd stories, but about half of these were new to me.
2 people found this helpful
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Christi
5.0 out of 5 stars short, easy and hilarious
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2024
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Very short book. I read it in a single day. But really funny and interesting to read! I’ve been a fan of the podcast for years, and now I’m a fan of the books, too!
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Steve Thomas
4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book For The Throne
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2011
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Einstein's Refrigerator reminds me of the Paul Harvey radio spot that used to appear every noon, decades ago.

He'd tell an interesting little story, break for an advertisement, and then tell you (dramatic pause) the REST of the story. The pieces were well constructed according to a formula, and if you think formulaic writing is bad writing, I beg you to reconsider. It's no different than a baker using a recipe, to ensure that the bread he baked yesterday, bakes today, and will bake tomorrow is consistently good. That's the reason people flock to chain restaurants - they know exactly what to expect.

In Paul Harvey's case, one of the tricks he often used was to use an incomplete name - and when he told you that Donald John was the first name, the whole name was Donald John Trump, listeners hit their forehead with the heel of their hand, saying "I should've guessed that." Paul Harvey even did that with his own name, and his son, writer Paul Harvey Aurandt, Jr. used the family name, Paul Aurandt, before stepping into his father's shoes and using the Paul Harvey, Jr. name.

The strength - and weakness - of Einstein's Refrigerator is that it's a series of stories about different topics, connected only by the fact that they're all written to the same entertaining formula. The Jeff Goldblum character in The Big Chill deprecates the magazine he works for, a clone of People magazine, because the short articles are the perfect length for reading while on the toilet. It's not just People magazine, though, it's Reader's Digest, and Guideposts - and this book belongs there, too.

It's not suitable for reading in bed, because you'll never fall asleep; the conclusion of each item is too stimulating for that. It's not really suitable for extended reading in the evening, either, because you constantly are switching from one topic to another. It might be suitable for reading in waiting rooms, however, and that's where I read my copy, because I'm afraid my Kindle might not fare well if it gets wet.

It's a nice book, entertaining, and although it's formulaic, it's well written. A number of the topics were already known to me, yet the presentation made the topics well worth reading, anyway. Jeff Goldblum might disapprove of this book - but I liked it.
6 people found this helpful
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dutch tidd
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2022
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Very interesting,, very interesting, had to scratch my head a few times. If you think back to your grade school days you just found out we were brain washed , George Washington still my prez.
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Football's mom
3.0 out of 5 stars enough already!
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2011
Verified Purchase
Although the individual stories were educational and entertaining - I couldn't stomach the ending of each chapter. If I had to read that sentence one more time I think I would have thrown the book across the room (of course I wouldn't, since I read it on my Kindle). I also wasn't that thrilled with the writer's style - it seemed like the attempt at humor seen in high school student's essays.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Sandra
3.0 out of 5 stars The actual stories are good but the American self-celebration is awful --- or just ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2014
Verified Purchase
The actual stories are good but the American self-celebration is awful --- or just not what I am used to. The lead up to each story is longwinded self-celebrating, no-one is interested how the author came about each story (each the same I am so brilliant way). But one has to get through that if one wants to read the actually good stories....
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