雅科夫·伊西多罗维奇·别莱利曼

雅科夫·伊西多罗维奇·别莱利曼（俄语：Яков Исидорович Перельман，1882年12月4日—1942年3月16日）俄罗斯/苏联数学、物理及天文科普作家,一生著有105部著作，有《趣味物理学》等多部科普作品，创办了苏联第一份科普杂志《在大自然的实验室里》。，有以他命名的别莱利曼陨石坑。

Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (Russian: Яков Исидорович Перельман; 4 December [O.S. 22 November] 1882 – 16 March 1942) was a Russian and Soviet science writer and author of many popular science books, including Physics Can Be Fun and Mathematics Can Be Fun (both translated from Russian into English).

Life and work

Perelman was born in 1882 in the town of Białystok, Russian Empire. He obtained the Diploma in Forestry from the Imperial Forestry Institute (Now Saint-Petersburg State Forestry University) in Saint Petersburg, in 1909. He was influenced by Ernst Mach and probably the Russian Machist Alexander Bogdanov in his pedagogical approach to popularising science. After the success of Physics for Entertainment, Perelman set out to produce other books, in which he showed himself to be an imaginative populariser of science. Especially popular were Arithmetic for entertainment, Mechanics for entertainment, Geometry for Entertainment, Astronomy for entertainment, Lively Mathematics, Physics Everywhere, and Tricks and Amusements.

His famous books on physics and astronomy were translated into various languages by the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky thought highly of Perelman's talents and creative genius, writing of him in the preface of Interplanetary Journeys: "The author has long been known by his popular, witty and quite scientific works on physics, astronomy and mathematics, which are, moreover written in a marvelous language and are very readable."

Perelman has also authored a number of textbooks and articles in Soviet popular science magazines.

In addition to his educational and scientific writings, he also worked as an editor of science magazines, including Nature and People and In the Workshop of Nature.

Perelman died from starvation in 1942, during the German Siege of Leningrad. The siege started on 9 September 1941 and lasted 872 days, until

27 January 1944. The Siege of Leningrad was one of the longest, most destructive sieges of a major city in modern history and one of the costliest in terms of casualties (1,117,000).

His older brother Yosif was a writer who published under the pseudonym Osip Dymov. He is not related to the Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman, who was born in 1966 to a different Yakov Perelman. However, Grigori Perelman told The New Yorker that his father gave him Physics for Entertainment, and it inspired his interest in mathematics.

Books

Mathematics can be Fun

Astronomia Recreativa

Physics for Entertainment (1913)

Figures for Fun

Algebra can be Fun

Fun with Maths & Physics

Arithmetic for entertainment

Mechanics for entertainment

Geometry for Entertainment

Astronomy for entertainment

Lively Mathematics

Physics Everywhere

Tricks and Amusements

Physics Can Be Fun

He has also written several books on interplanetary travel (Interplanetary Journeys, On a Rocket to Stars, and World Expanses)

Physics for Entertainment

In 1913, Russian bookshops began carrying Physics for Entertainment. The educationalist's new book attracted young readers seeking answers to scientific questions.

Physics for Entertainment had a unique layout as well as an instructive style. In the preface (11th ed.) Perelman wrote: "The main objective of Physics for Entertainment is to arouse the activity of scientific imagination, to teach the reader to think in the spirit of the science of physics and to create in his mind a wide variety of associations of physical knowledge with the widely differing facts of life, with all that he normally comes into contact with."