Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down,   ISBN:9780306812835

Customer Rating: 

Well written, interesting book on a subject that most of us see daily.
Explains basic principals in terms of real life examples from ships and bridges to animals.
Material is presented with a minimum of math and provides an excellent conceptual overview of the subject. This is my second copy, I mailed my origional copy off to our daughter. Second read was as good as the first.

Customer Rating: 

This book is widely regarded as a masterpiece, and deservedly so. Thank goodness it's still in print!

From cover to cover, the book is packed with deep and valuable insights into the behavior and design of structures, including the natural structures "designed" by evolutionary processes. And at the same time, the book is written in a delightfully chatty and unpretentious style which makes it a joy to read, and often even something of a page turner.

The ideal audience is probably structural engineers, and even seasoned ones are sure to learn a thing or two. But most interested lay readers can also benefit from the book, and the author has clearly made a sincere effort to help bring the subject within their grasp.

This book gets my highest possible recommendation, and the price is so low that there's no reason to hesitate to purchase it.

Customer Rating: 

I'm a starting-out engineer with a degree in aerospace. This is the sort of book that I would've "wanted" to read while in school. I personally haven't had chance to use 90% of what I've learned in school. But this book has opened my eyes to the root of what we do as engineers. Not something that'll get you a better grade in school. Instead, it will motivate you to really learn the most basic and important thing in engineering and to realize how important and crucial what we do at work are. 100% recommended for all my fellow engineering geeks out there!

Customer Rating: 

The author, who worked as an aeronautical engineer during the war, was fond of asking his colleages "but shouldn't we put feathers on the wings". That his answer effected an instrument design of my own is strange enough, but it's his persistence in asking such a question well into middle age that is perhaps of higher value. It illustrates the childlike joy that marks the pleasures of engineering. In another example, a drawing of a wing feather showing the quill not centered but close to the leading edge provides a vivid punchline to the story of the development of the mono-plane. How putting struts in the center of their wings made them twist off when pulling out of a dive - resulting in the deaths of many Fokker pilots. He deepens our understanding of shear stresses through examples of form-fitting cocktail dresses made of fabrics cut 'on the bias' - heightening my appreciation both for the human form and Poisson's Ratio. That a book on structural enginnering was a pleasure to read was a surprise. That it was un-put-downable boggles the mind. He enables what we most hope for and least expect from a book: to see the world afresh.

Customer Rating: 

I must confess I had a terrible time in the U making my degree in mechanical engineering.. stregth of materials almost made me mad.

But as Twain said it, I have not let my schooling interfere with my education... and this are the books that educate.. for education can only be self-education... this is what I was after in the U and I never received it!!!

I go futher with this assertion, the progress of the US (and some other advanced nations) above all the rest lies in the fact that popularizations of science and technology are readibly accesible to everyone (for all of those who want to use it, of course).. if anyone ever doubts the positive effects of globalization and the internet, I can testify that ever since I can use Amazon I can tap into the resources of knowledge previously denied by geographical barriers and help the system that produces this books.

Getting back to the book, no matter what your schooling is, if you are into design and need to know about structures you cannot go wrong with this wonderful book.