The
physics resources thread from two months ago listed a few books, to which I can add "The Manga Guide to Physics" and the "Mr. Tompkins" books by George Gamow, which my 11yo is reading.
Another book by Gamow to consider is "One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science". Thorne has written some books for a popular audience, including "The Science of Interstellar". The movie may be of interest.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-weekend-interview-finding-our-place-in-the-stars-1416005859Finding Our Place in the Stars: The physicist who kept the ‘Interstellar’ science sharp talks about black holes, space travel and his optimistic vision of human possibility.
By SOHRAB AHMARI
Wall Street Journal
Updated Nov. 14, 2014 6:28 p.m. ET
Mr. Thorne served as executive producer and scientific consultant for “Interstellar,” director Christopher Nolan ’s riveting new science-fiction epic.
...
Kip Thorne was born in 1940 in Logan, a small university town in northern Utah. “When I was a child I wanted to be a snowplow driver,” he recalls, “because in Logan the snow drifts 7 or 8 feet high, and for a child it’s fabulous to be able to push those around.” He abandoned that aspiration when, at age 8, he accompanied his mother to a lecture on the solar system. Then, at 13, he read “One, Two, Three . . . Infinity,” a 1947 primer by the physicist George Gamow. “That got me hooked on relativity and theoretical physics and I never got unhooked,” he says.
