science

The QI Book of the Dead

The QI Book of the Dead is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The QI Book of the Dead rather than just read about it. In short: The QI Book of the Dead (sold as The Book of the Dead in the United States) is the fourth title in a series of books based on the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson. It is a book of "quite interesting" obituaries.

Key takeaways

The QI Book of the Dead belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The QI Book of the Dead to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The QI Book of the Dead from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The QI Book of the Dead (sold as The Book of the Dead in the United States) is the fourth title in a series of books based on the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson. It is a book of "quite interesting" obituaries.

Publication history The QI Book of the Dead was first published by Faber and Faber in hardback on 5 November 2009. The idea of the book originated before the television series QI was broadcast. Mitchinson wrote in an article for the Daily Telegraph newspaper that, "It first appeared on one of our "how to make life more interesting" lists at a time when Stephen Fry's erudite put-downs and the anteater impressions of Alan Davies weren't even gleams in Lloyd's eye."

Structure The book is divided into 10 chapters, covering 68 different people. However, instead of dividing the chapters into subjects normally found in such books, like "Royalty", "Scientists" and "Sportsmen", The QI Book of the Dead uses "more diverting categories". Examples include "There's Nothing Like a Bad Start in Life", covering people who had bad childhoods; "Man Cannot Live by Bread Alone", about people with unusual diets; and "Is That All There Is?" about people interested in life after death.

Reception Ian Wolf for the British Comedy Guide was mostly positive with his review, saying: "The QI Book of the Dead is definitely an enjoyable read, and makes for a great gift idea. For one thing, it allows us to look back and learn on the mistakes of our ancestors. Amongst those ancestors are Confucius and Nefertiti, whom everyone in the world is related to... interesting, isn't it!" However, Wolf also wrote that the book made mistakes. He wrote that the book wrongly claimed that Lord Shelburne was Prime Minister, when in fact he was First Lord of the Treasury, with the title of "Prime Minister" not being used to describe the leader of the British government until a century after Shelburne died by Henry Campbell-Bannerman.

Obituaries The people covered in The QI Book of the Dead are as follows.

References

Further reading Lloyd, John and Mitchinson, John. The QI Book of the Dead. London: Faber and Faber. 5 November 2009. ISBN 978-0-571-24490-4

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The QI Book of the Dead

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The QI Book of the Dead claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The QI Book of the Dead before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The QI Book of the Dead ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The QI Book of the Dead

In research: The QI Book of the Dead appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The QI Book of the Dead in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The QI Book of the Dead is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2009 non-fiction books, Books based on QI, Books by John Lloyd (producer), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The QI Book of the Dead outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The QI Book of the Dead in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The QI Book of the Dead means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The QI Book of the Dead out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The QI Book of the Dead in simple terms?

Why does The QI Book of the Dead matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The QI Book of the Dead?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The QI Book of the Dead.