Flying Buttresses Entropy And O Rings

Download or read book Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-rings written by James L. Adams and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Teflon to Velcro, from bandwidths to base pairs, the artifacts of engineering and technology reflect the broad scope--and frustrating limitations--of our imagination. Best-selling author James Adams takes readers on an enlightening tour of this exciting world, demystifying such endeavors as design, research, and manufacturing.

Download or read book Linear Inverse Problems: The Maximum Entropy Connection (With Cd-rom) written by Henryk Gzyl and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2011-02-16 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book describes a useful tool for solving linear inverse problems subject to convex constraints. The method of maximum entropy in the mean automatically takes care of the constraints. It consists of a technique for transforming a large dimensional inverse problem into a small dimensional non-linear variational problem.A variety of mathematical aspects of the maximum entropy method are explored as well.

Download or read book Aramis, or The Love of Technology written by Bruno Latour and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1996-04-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bruno Latour has written a unique and wonderful tale of a technological dream gone wrong. The story of the birth and death of Aramis—the guided-transportation system intended for Paris—is told in this thought-provoking and fictional account by several different parties: an engineer and his professor; company executives and elected officials; a sociologist; and finally Aramis itself, who delivers a passionate plea on behalf of technological innovations that risk being abandoned by their makers. As the young engineer and professor follow Aramis’s trail—conducting interviews, analyzing documents, assessing the evidence—perspectives keep shifting: the truth is revealed as multilayered, unascertainable, comprising an array of possibilities worthy of Rashomon. This charming and profound book, part novel and part sociological study, is Latour at his thought-provoking best.

Download or read book Hunting and Gathering on the Information Savanna written by Brian Clark O'Connor and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Serves as the focal concept in a search for a truly functional document access system, enabling us to stand back from the present, to look into the shadows of our current designs, marvel at the breadth of human search capabilities, recognize frailties in both humans and systems, and ask new questions as we grapple with navigating our information environment. O'Connor and Copeland offer three different arenas of nontrivial information seeking for our consideration: "Submarine Chasing" explores the thoughts of a highly decorated Cold War submarine hunter. "Bounty Hunting" involves a long and convoluted search for a reported bond skipper. "Engineering Design" presents a content analysis of the few works on epistemological foundations of engineering design activity. These stories, told at great length and in considerable detail, are framed within a foundational model that links the simple act of document seeking to the broader issue of making one's way through life in the physical world. In each case, the authors ramble, mull, and stumble upon ideas without the least prior constraint, developing some threads quite fully and leaving others to tease us, but never ever throwing us to the lions.

Download or read book Engineering written by Natasha McCarthy and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the human side to the discipline that is profoundly more than nuts and bolts Focusing on the impact of engineering on society and the world, McCarthy details the development of the discipline, explains what makes an engineering mind, and shows how every aspect of our lives has been engineered: from gadgets to our national infrastructure. Long considered tinkerers, problem solvers, and visionaries, engineers hold the keys to our real and virtual future.

Download or read book Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People written by Steven Vogel and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2000-01-17 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Full of ideas and well-explained principles that will bring new understanding of everyday things to both scientists and non-scientists alike."—R. McNeill Alexander, Nature Nature and humans build their devices with the same earthly materials and use them in the same air and water, pulled by the same gravity. Why, then, do their designs diverge so sharply? Humans, for instance, love right angles, while nature's angles are rarely right and usually rounded. Our technology goes around on wheels—and on rotating pulleys, gears, shafts, and cams—yet in nature only the tiny propellers of bacteria spin as true wheels. Our hinges turn because hard parts slide around each other, whereas nature's hinges (a rabbit's ear, for example) more often swing by bending flexible materials. In this marvelously surprising, witty book, Steven Vogel compares these two mechanical worlds, introduces the reader to his field of biomechanics, and explains how the nexus of physical law, size, and convenience of construction determine the designs of both people and nature. "This elegant comparison of human and biological technology will forever change the way you look at each."—Michael LaBarbera, American Scientist

Download or read book Earth Science for Civil and Environmental Engineers written by Richard E. Jackson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces the fundamental principles of applied Earth science needed for engineering practice, with case studies, exercises, and online solutions.