Why isn't wood weaker that it is? Why isn't steel stronger? Why does glass sometimes shatter and sometimes bend like spring? Why do ships break in half? What is a liquid and is treacle one? All these are questions about the nature of materials. All of them are vital to engineers but also fascinating as scientific problems. During the 250 years up to the 1920s and 1930s they had been answered largely by seeing how materials behaved in practice. But materials continued to do things that they...

In a book that Business Insider noted as one of the "14 Books that inspired Elon Musk," J.E. Gordon strips engineering of its confusing technical terms, communicating its founding principles in accessible, witty prose.For anyone who has ever wondered why suspension bridges don't collapse under eight lanes of traffic, how dams hold back-or give way under-thousands of gallons of water, or what principles guide the design of a skyscraper or a kangaroo, this bo...

In "The New Science of Strong Materials" the author made plain the secrets of materials science. In this volume he explains the importance and properties of different structures.

In describing the geomorphological heritage of Scotland, this volume offers a remarkable account of how the natural environment responded in terms of landforms, processes and plant communities, to severe climatic change as the Quaternary era progressed over the last two million years.This legacy, as preserved in the 138 nationally important GCR sites described, documents a remarkable diversity of landforms in a relatively small area. The rugged highland contrast with the rolling hil...

Connections is a brilliant examination of the ideas, inventions, and coincidences that have culminated in the major technological achievements of today.How did the popularity of underwear in the twelfth century lead to the invention of the printing press? How did the waterwheel evolve into the computer? How did the arrival of the cannon lead eventually to the development of movies?In this highly acclaimed and bestselling book, James Burke brilliant...

The perfect companion to any flight - a guide to the science on view from your window seat. There are few times when science is so immediate as when you're in a plane. Your life is in the hands of the scientists and engineers who enable tons of metal and plastic to hurtle through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour. Inflight Science shows how you stay alive up there - but that's only the beginning.Brian Clegg explains the ever changing view, whether it's crop circles or clouds, mo...

Since the appearance of the first commercially available metal detectors in the 1960s, the hobby of metal detecting has developed rapidly and, as the technology has improved, more and more people have become metal detectorists. This is not surprising since metal detecting is an enjoyable and exciting leisure-time pursuit that is accessible to almost everybody, regardless of age or fitness. Moreover, metal detecting need not be an expensive hobby and there is a wide range of metal detectors...

Invention and innovation are what distinguish the human race from all of the other species on Earth. Throughout history the imagination and pioneering spirit of human kind has compelled us to question why we do things in a certain way and, more importantly, how we can do things better.Celebrating the ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness that has led to some of the most amazing technological leaps through the ages, Breverton's Encyclopedia of Inventions examines the key innovat...

Noise is a widely recognized problem and health concern in the modern world. Given the importance of managing noise levels and developing suitable 'soundscapes' in contexts such as industry, schools, or public spaces, this is an area of active research for acousticians. But noise, in the sense of dissonance, can also be used positively; composers have employed it from Baroque music to Rock feedback; medicine harnesses it to shatter kidney stones and treat cancer; and even the military uses...

A thrilling, mystery-lifting narrative history of the refrigerator and the process of refrigerationThe refrigerator. This white box that sits in the kitchen may seem mundane nowadays, but it is one of the wonders of 20th century science – life-saver, food-preserver and social liberator, while the science of refrigeration is crucial, not just in transporting food around the globe but in a host of branches on the scientific tree. Refrigerators, refrigeration and its ...

"A brilliant history of technology. . . . full of wonders of nature, human invention, history" and more ( Wall Street Journal).There is no part of our bodies that fully rotates—be it a wrist or ankle or arm in a shoulder socket, we are made to twist only so far. And yet there is no more fundamental human invention than the wheel—a rotational mechanism that accomplishes what our physical form cannot. Throughout history, humans have developed technologies pow...

Who invented the flying machine? Was the Titanic really the first ‘unsinkable’ ship? How would one use a phonoscope? Using old Victorian documents, Caroline Rochford takes the reader on a guided tour of hundreds of fascinating nineteenth-century inventions from across the globe, some strange and some remarkably familiar. Think solar power is a modern concept? Think again! Today everyone has a camera, but imagine the excitement of taking a snap of a giraffe hotel! This is a surprising journ...