| Preface | |
| Acknowledgments | |
| Ch. 1 | Units and Dimensions and Mach Numbers | 3 |
| Ch. 2 | Alligator Eggs and the Federal Debt | 15 |
| Ch. 3 | Controlling Growth and Perceiving Spread | 24 |
| Ch. 4 | Little Things Falling from the Sky | 31 |
| Ch. 5 | Big Things Falling from the Sky | 42 |
| Ch. 6 | Towing and Melting Enormous Icebergs: Part I | 54 |
| Ch. 7 | Towing and Melting Enormous Icebergs: Part II | 68 |
| Ch. 8 | A Better Way to Score the Olympics | 79 |
| Ch. 9 | How to Calculate the Economic Energy of a Nation | 93 |
| Ch. 10 | How to Start Football Games, and Other Probably Good Ideas | 109 |
| Ch. 11 | Gigantic Numbers and Extreme Exponents | 121 |
| Ch. 12 | Ups and Downs of Professional Football | 133 |
| Ch. 13 | A Tower, a Bridge, and a Beautiful Arch | 150 |
| Ch. 14 | Jumping Ropes and Wind Turbines | 168 |
| Ch. 15 | The Crisis of the Deficit: Gompertz to the Rescue | 179 |
| Ch. 16 | How to Reduce the Population with Differential Equations | 189 |
| Ch. 17 | Shot Puts, Basketballs, and Water Fountains | 201 |
| Ch. 18 | Balls and Strikes and Home Runs | 219 |
| Ch. 19 | Hooks and Slices and Holes in One | 234 |
| Ch. 20 | Happy Landings in the Snow | 243 |
| Ch. 21 | Water Waves and Falling Dominoes | 254 |
| Ch. 22 | Something Shocking about Highway Traffic | 270 |
| Ch. 23 | How Tall Will I Grow? | 283 |
| Ch. 24 | How Fast Can Runners Run? | 300 |
| References | 321 |
| Index | 327 |
