Serendipity35

In what will certainly be my only post about Tiger Woods on Serendipity35, I pass on this little curiosity news item I spotted this morning.

Some observant reporter noted that there was a book in Tiger's smashed Cadillac on that disastrous day. It was a physics book. Looks like he was reading Get a Grip on Physics by John Gribbin.

That little news nugget sent the book’s Amazon sales rank from 396,224 up to 2,268. That may be better than an Oprah appearance.

It's a general intro to physics book, so we don't know what Tiger was looking to find. What is the golf connection to quarks, antiquarks, string theory, or the Schrödinger's Cat paradox?  I haven't seen much speculation online. Now, after all that has happened since that crash, perhaps Tiger is thinking more about quantum and actual uncertainty or about how a career can go into a black holes or how to wiggle your way out of a spot using superfluidity.

“The obvious speculation is he saw the words ‘get a grip’ and thought it would help with his golf grip,” Gribbin joked to  The Wall Street Journal.

From the way the book's entry look on Amazon.com, I think it's out of print. If you have a copy on your university office shelf gathering dust, now is the time to sell it!