 | Price Comparisons: Rental | | Sorry, the textbook you were looking for is not available as Rental, at any of the stores we searched. | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | The New How Things Work updates the original with informative coverage of the objects and ideas that are changing our everyday lives, from DVDs and MP3 music files to plasma screen televisions and wireless internet technology.While most of us are curious about the inner workings of gadgets and machines, we often feel intimidated in our efforts to really understand them. The New How Things Work, a fascinating and clearly written and illustrated volume, uses anecdotal information to help readers understand the mechanisms and principals behind technological wonders, painlessly folding in the basic scientific principles that make each of them work.With chapters including Home, Buildings and Building, Power and Energy, Transportation, Entertainment, Manufacturing, and Tools of Medicine, the book covers every important technological category, focusing on familiar items such as clocks and locks, planes and trains, elevators and escalators, and the not-so-familiar-"smart" clothes and buildings, laser surgery, and DNA manipulation.Like David Macaulay's classic The Way Things Work and Bill Bryson's recent bestseller, A Short History of Nearly Everything, this eminently browsable book presents ideas and concepts in clear, concise language. The text, which is organized into stand-alone spreads, is lavishly illustrated with more than 400 photographs, technical drawings, diagrams, and sidebar concepts that visually reinforce the science explained in the text.National Geographic's The New How Things Work is a comprehensive reference that will satisfy the curious and educate the perplexed. If you are curious about everyday gadgets, machines, tools, even industrial and medical processes, you'll find the answers you've always wanted in The New How Things Work. |
Average Customer Rating:   Springboard for Exploring Technology Writing about a wide range of subjects is difficult, especially if you want to keep your book down to a manageable thickness. And technology is definitely wide-ranging going from familiar machines like levers and cars to the cutting edge of farming practices and medical discoveries. Giving each device and discovery its due on a single (albeit oversized) page is no mean feat. And, for the most part, John Langone does an admirable job.
This should not be considered a textbook. Each entry gives an overview of its topic, not an in-depth explanation. Power Stations, for example, explains that electricity is generated by turning a loop of wire within a magnetic field. Different power sources (e.g. nuclear, coal, wind) simply use different methods to turn the loop. For someone who is just trying to get the "gist" of how power stations work, this is enough. It certainly doesn't explain the physics of electromagnetics. But then, if every topic was gone into such depth, this volume would be the thickness of a physics, chemistry and biology textbook combined. Certainly not what the casual reader is looking for. But, for those whose curiosity has been whetted and seek a more thorough explanation, a nice list of suggested reading is given at the end.
That being said, at times I thought he could have given just a bit more explanation. The entry on bridges, for instance, describes five different types of bridges, but without corresponding illustrations. There is a magnificent photo of a man working his way up the cable of, what I suppose to be, a suspension type bridge, and a gorgeous shot of a Roman aqueduct (which is mysteriously considered not a bridge). But just a simple illustration of the arrangements of the other types would have complemented the text a thousandfold.
Overall, this book is fairly useful for the average reader and, since this is National Geographic, beautiful to look through. Disappointing I had high hopes for this book seeing as how it was done by National Geographic but the explanations for "how things work" lacked details. The language is elegant, but it does not tell you anything that you couldn't ascertain by simply using and observing these things in your everyday life. So - how DO things work? The book doesn't actually get around to telling you how things work. Thank goodness Amazon has a liberal return policy. This book was useless to me. Everyday Technology Explained John Langone's "The New How Things Work" has more information with more details, realistic illustrations, and actual photographs to show how each item works. This is the grown-up companion to David Macaulay's illustrated "the New Way Things Work." Both books will last a lifetime in information or until obselete.
National Geographic, renowned for its magnificent publications over the years does not falter with this volume. Instead, it is an over-sized publication dedicated to explaining technology to the lay public. The explanations are not "dumbed down" but use standard scientific terms, but not so difficult that an educated person cannot comprehend them. An example taken from the first product highlighted: "A microwave oven produces high-frequency electromagnetic waves. Passing through food, the waves reverse polarity billions of times a second" (16).
The book is arranged into eleven categories: At Home, Power and Energy, Buildings, Transportation, Agriculture, Fabrics and Fibers, Entertainment, Mining and Manufacturing, Information and Communication, and Other Worlds.
Two items from each category in order: security systems, plumbing, geothermal power, batteries, escalators, bridges, bicycles, sailboats, aquaculture, hydroponics, sewing, synthetic fibers, DVD, the zamboni, glassmaking, robotics, X-ray, implants, cell phones, internet, night vision, and military technology. An amazing list of technology whose inner workings are revealed. And many more items.
I flipped randomly to show the reader an example of how things are explained. On page 70 is an article, illustration, and photograph of various aspects of the "Chunnel" or Channel Tunnel, which traverses the English/French Channel. The illustration shows the two one-way rail tunnels for trains and shuttles and the central service tunnel for ventilation and evacuation. The photograph shows an incredible machine that cut through rock 200 feet below the floor of the English Channel. A magnificent feat!!
These two books, together or separately, are the study of many, many times opened on a parent's or grandparent's lap. At some point the child him or herself will continue the journey alone in a solitary quest to know how and the way things work.
Both are highly recommended. this book was awsome I would recommend this book to people because I really thought this book was a page-turner. It was a page-turner because I would always want to know how the next things work and function. Another reason why I recommend this book to people that really like to learn about how combustion engines work or how a cell phone works, and everything in between. |  |
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