To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design

Petroski, Henry

ISBN 10: 0679734163 / ISBN 13: 9780679734161

Published by Vintage, 1992

About this Item

NEW! Why does a modern designed bridge twist and fall apart in a wet wind? Why does a high walkway buckle for no reason? This book not only covers failures but also brilliant successes. Petroski is the guy to go to for explaining the odd things about science. This one is a real hit for anyone interested in engineering, as sell as being good for us to ponder about.

Seller Inventory # 001641

Bibliographic Details

• Title: To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design
• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679734163
• ISBN 13: 9780679734161
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New
• Seller catalogs:
  • References
  • Science and Math

About this title

Synopsis

How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s - the collapse of the walkways at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel? What made the graceful and innovative Tacoma Narrows Bridge twist apart in a mild wind in 1940? How did an oversized waterlily inspire the magnificent Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes that Henry Petroski, author of the acclaimed The Pencil, examines in this engaging, wonderfully literate book. More than a series of fascinating case studies, To Engineer is Human is a work that looks at our deepest notions of progress and perfection, tracing the fine connection between the quantifiable realm of science and the chaotic realities of everyday life.

About the Author

Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. The author of more than a dozen previous books, he lives in Durham, North Carolina, and Arrowsic, Maine.