[PDF] To Engineer Is Human eBook

Author : Henry Petroski
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 28,15 MB
Release : 2018-10-16
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 1250228077

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“Though ours is an age of high technology, the essence of what engineering is and what engineers do is not common knowledge. Even the most elementary of principles upon which great bridges, jumbo jets, or super computers are built are alien concepts to many. This is so in part because engineering as a human endeavor is not yet integrated into our culture and intellectual tradition. And while educators are currently wrestling with the problem of introducing technology into conventional academic curricula, thus better preparing today’s students for life in a world increasingly technological, there is as yet no consensus as to how technological literacy can best be achieved. " I believe, and I argue in this essay, that the ideas of engineering are in fact in our bones and part of our human nature and experience. Furthermore, I believe that an understanding and an appreciation of engineers and engineering can be gotten without an engineering or technical education. Thus I hope that the technologically uninitiated will come to read what I have written as an introduction to technology. Indeed, this book is my answer to the questions 'What is engineering?' and 'What do engineers do?'" - Henry Petroski, To Engineer is Human

Author : Henry Petroski
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 13,41 MB
Release : 2018-05-29
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0691180997

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Examines many of the failed designs and inventions that led to greater improvements siting as examples the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the space shuttle disasters.

Author : Henry Petroski
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 427 pages
File Size : 21,94 MB
Release : 2012-04-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 0674065433

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Argues that failures in structural engineering are not necessarily due to the physical design of the structures, but instead a misunderstanding of how cultural and socioeconomic constraints would affect the structures.

Author : Samuel C. Florman
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 46,59 MB
Release : 1996-02-15
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 1466842369

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Humans have always sought to change their environment--building houses, monuments, temples, and roads. In the process, they have remade the fabric of the world into newly functional objects that are also works of art to be admired. In this second edition of his popular Existential Pleasures of Engineering, Samuel Florman explores how engineers think and feel about their profession. A deeply insightful and refreshingly unique text, this book corrects the myth that engineering is cold and passionless. Indeed, Florman celebrates engineering not only crucial and fundamental but also vital and alive; he views it as a response to some of our deepest impulses, an endeavor rich in spiritual and sensual rewards. Opposing the "anti-technology" stance, Florman gives readers a practical, creative, and even amusing philosophy of engineering that boasts of pride in his craft.

Author : Henry Petroski
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 11,71 MB
Release : 1998-12-29
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0375700242

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Science/Engineering "Petroski has an inquisitive mind, and he is a fine writer. . . . [He] takes us on a lively tour of engineers, their creations and their necessary turns of mind." --Los Angeles Times From the Ferris wheel to the integrated circuit, feats of engineering have changed our environment in countless ways, big and small. In Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering, Duke University's Henry Petroski focuses on the big: Malaysia's 1,482-foot Petronas Towers as well as the Panama Canal, a cut through the continental divide that required the excavation of 311 million cubic yards of earth. Remaking the World tells the stories behind the man-made wonders of the world, from squabbles over the naming of the Hoover Dam to the effects the Titanic disaster had on the engineering community of 1912. Here, too, are the stories of the personalities behind the wonders, from the jaunty Isambard Kingdom Brunel, designer of nineteenth-century transatlantic steamships, to Charles Steinmetz, oddball genius of the General Electric Company, whose office of preference was a battered twelve-foot canoe. Spirited and absorbing, Remaking the World is a celebration of the creative instinct and of the men and women whose inspirations have immeasurably improved our world. "Petroski [is] America's poet laureate of technology. . . . Remaking the World is another fine book." --Houston Chronicle "Remaking the World really is an adventure in engineering." --San Diego Union-Tribune

Author : Henry Petroski
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 38,79 MB
Release : 2011-03-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 0307473503

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From the acclaimed author of The Pencil and To Engineer Is Human, The Essential Engineer is an eye-opening exploration of the ways in which science and engineering must work together to address our world’s most pressing issues, from dealing with climate change and the prevention of natural disasters to the development of efficient automobiles and the search for renewable energy sources. While the scientist may identify problems, it falls to the engineer to solve them. It is the inherent practicality of engineering, which takes into account structural, economic, environmental, and other factors that science often does not consider, that makes engineering vital to answering our most urgent concerns. Henry Petroski takes us inside the research, development, and debates surrounding the most critical challenges of our time, exploring the feasibility of biofuels, the progress of battery-operated cars, and the question of nuclear power. He gives us an in-depth investigation of the various options for renewable energy—among them solar, wind, tidal, and ethanol—explaining the benefits and risks of each. Will windmills soon populate our landscape the way they did in previous centuries? Will synthetic trees, said to be more efficient at absorbing harmful carbon dioxide than real trees, soon dot our prairies? Will we construct a “sunshade” in outer space to protect ourselves from dangerous rays? In many cases, the technology already exists. What’s needed is not so much invention as engineering. Just as the great achievements of centuries past—the steamship, the airplane, the moon landing—once seemed beyond reach, the solutions to the twenty-first century’s problems await only a similar coordination of science and engineering. Eloquently reasoned and written, The Essential Engineer identifies and illuminates these problems—and, above all, sets out a course for putting ideas into action.

Author : Henry Petroski
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 17,54 MB
Release : 1994-05-27
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780521466493

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Case histories of engineering success and failure are presented to enrich understanding of the design process.

Author : Trevor A. Kletz
Publisher : IChemE
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 39,30 MB
Release : 2008
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780852955321

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This title looks at how people, as opposed to technology and computers within plants, are arguably the most unreliable factor, leading to dangerous situations.

Author : L S Blake
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 1242 pages
File Size : 10,59 MB
Release : 1994-03-21
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 1482269260

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After an examination of fundamental theories as applied to civil engineering, authoritative coverage is included on design practice for certain materials and specific structures and applications. A particular feature is the incorporation of chapters on construction and site practice, including contract management and control.

Author : Josef Škvorecký
Publisher : Dalkey Archive Press
Page : 596 pages
File Size : 46,8 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781564781994

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"So entertaining that it would be dangerous to read it without laughing aloud." Los Angeles Times Book Review