Generations of entertainers have amused audiences of children and adults with the art of hand shadows, using only a light source and their own two hands to form immediately recognizable profiles of people and animals. Lovers of nostalgia and aspiring hand shadow artists will delight in this facsimile of a 1913 book, which features more than 50 hand shadows. These quaint illustrations depict many different types of shadows, from swans, rabbits, and other animals to historic figures and fictional characters. Each hand shadow is accompanied by a description of specific hand positioning and an illustration. Additional helpful tips include instructions on lighting, projection screens, and hand exercises.

Looks at the depiction and meaning of shadows in the history of Western art

Clear explanations and over 70 illustrations demonstrate how to position your hands to make lifelike shadows of a lumbering dinosaur, a pair of playful monkeys, an eagle taking flight, a cat scratching itself, a howling wolf, a neighing horse, a dog that eats a rabbit, and many other figures.

This collection gathers together nearly 330 tangrams, the best creations of both Chinese and Occidental puzzle devisers. Puzzles range from the relatively easy to the difficult.

Schlieren and shadowgraph techniques are basic and valuable tools in various scientific and engineering disciplines. They allow us to see the invisible: the optical inhomogeneities in transparent media like air, water, and glass that otherwise cause only ghostly distortions of our normal vision. These techniques are discussed briefly in many books and papers, but there is no up-to-date complete treatment of the subject before now. The book is intended as a practical guide for those who want to use these methods, as well as a resource for a broad range of disciplines where scientific visualization is important. The colorful 400-year history of these methods is covered in an extensive introductory chapter accessible to all readers.