Professor Povey’s book is aimed at aspiring 6th form physicists and mathematicians (and their teachers) who would like to stretch themselves. Its subtitle is “Pre-University Physics and Maths Puzzles with Solutions”, but I would say this does not fully describe the quality of the book. Dr. Tom Povey, who is a professor of engineering at Oxford, introduces each chapter with the key physics of the topic. These are not complete treatises, but are very useful summaries which include some of the bigger ideas (e.g. the relationship between momentum and different frames of reference). The puzzles themselves are arranged in recognisable A-level topics and are star rated. A one star problem is accessible to y11 students or even younger. Higher starred problems offer more of a challenge. The questions come from Dr. Povey’s experience of interviewing perspective students. He has given them some interesting and witty contexts and has importantly included solutions which develop the ideas further. The background stories are quirky, but be careful, I was intrigued by one tale sufficiently to spend 2 hours researching a particular French painting! The problems vary from satisfyingly challenging to hard and very perplexing.

There is something playful going on in the book from “the deadly game of puzzle points” included in the book and the splendid illustrations, to the website for the book (http://perplexingproblems.com/video/). It reminded me of something I had partially forgotten about why I like Physics: Science can be a very social and fun activity! ( )