Angry Birds, which was first released as a game for iOS in December 2009, has grown into a ubiquitous franchise that has flung itself across pretty much every major gaming platform out there. In addition to t-shirts and plush toys, the game has inspired a number of books from National Geographic. The latest one is called National Geographic Angry Birds Furious Forces!: The Physics at Play in the World’s Most Popular Game by Rhett Allain, who happens to be a physics professor and a blogger for Wired.com.

As the title suggests, this very colorful book uses the action in the game to explain concepts like projectile motion, terminal velocity and oscillating mass. This isn’t an in-depth textbook, mind you, but a very basic introduction to physics and physical science that uses familiar characters and knowledge of the gameplay to illustrate its points.

Angry Birds Furious Forces is less than $15. It’s small and square and uses a lively graphic design and plenty of Angry Birds illustrations to keep readers flipping through the pages. Beyond books, the Angry Birds game has branched out from its original version and has several specialty editions, including a Star Wars-themed title.

Star Wars itself has become an entranced part of popular culture in the past 36 years and has now inspired one Dr. Ian Doescher, Ph.D, to retell the tale in iambic pentameter. The $15 book William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope was released this week from Quirk Books. The book’s trailer can give you a taste of the action.

If you’d like more of a sample, check out Episode 54, featuring special guest Francis Mateo. Mr. Mateo, just finished playing the part of King Ferdinand in the Shakespeare Forum’s production of Love’s Labor’s Lost; he also published a poetry collection, Ubre Ubre, this spring. Thanks for joining us this week, Francis!

Happy American Independence Day — yes, may this Fourth be with you, too. Go watch some Star Wars and play a few of the new levels in Angry Birds this weekend!