The Science of Discworld is a 1999 book by novelist Terry Pratchett and
popular science writers Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. Two sequels, The Science
of Discworld II: The Globe and The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch,
have been written by the same authors. The book alternates between a typically
absurd Discworld story and serious scientific exposition after each chapter.

The purpose of the book is both to entertain and educate. In having fictional
sections in which observers from a very different world with a very different
set of rules look with confused eyes upon the Earth ("Roundworld"), the authors
are able to expand upon things we take for granted, such as planets being round
and stars being far away, in a manner which is free of a line of thinking which
states "But that's obvious".

The cover of the book, designed by Paul Kidby, is a parody of the 1768 painting
"An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" by Joseph Wright of Derby.

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