Why structures dont fall down

On the basis of fulfilling its purpose, the author does a great job. The author breaks down difficult concepts into understandable chunks. He uses math judiciously Overall, I liked but did not love this book. He uses math judiciously to make principles more relatable.

By the end of the book, you can walk around a construction site and have a much better understanding of what's going on. More so, you're going to have a humility for all that you don't know.

One of my biggest takeaways, personally, was how little we understand of why structures work and how much of our recent experience with airplanes and bridges has been only after structures failed catastrophically. I detested the author's tone. To the author's credit, he wrote in what certainly seemed to be a sincere tone, so I suppose that I may just detest him. He writes in the manner of a charming, elderly British professor. What makes that more grating than charming to me are: - His obfuscation at times by relying on obscure historic or British references - His prejudices, including rhetorical asides that repeatedly suggest that little boys become engineers and little girls become frivolous targets for little boys to woo and that those who question whether British imperialism had downsides should be summarily dismissed Mar 26, Peter rated it it was amazing Shelves: science , ebook , favorites , nf.

I never thought I'd think so much about torsional stiffness, for example, or find my life marginally improved by knowing more about it. But Gordon's prose has a way of making you step away from the book and into your environment with fresh eyes, newly aware that things may or may not fall down all because of a few fundamental facts about tension and compression, stress and strain.

It's a preoccupying worldview; I can see why people end up structural engineers. Recommended to anyone who is a structure or interacts with structures one doesn't necessarily have to live a structured life , and is above say grade there is some math here and there. View 2 comments. May 09, Simon Bostock rated it really liked it Shelves: the-team.

And it does. Gordon doesn't see a 'clear distinction between material and structure', for example - which I think is a really interesting insight. It's fun, there's lots of interestingly powerful new words to learn, and, although it's very engineer-ish, I managed to grok most of it.

Mar 10, Uma rated it really liked it. Gordon makes everything sooo interesting. Mar 18, Javier M. This book was so interesting, really really interesting, but I have instruction in basic mechanics -I am an engineer- and i love all that stuff of stress and strain in structures and objects, but when you start saying that a lot of s This book was so interesting, really really interesting, but I have instruction in basic mechanics -I am an engineer- and i love all that stuff of stress and strain in structures and objects, but when you start saying that a lot of strain on veins tissue can provoke an Aneurism Of course all of this things are true, at least the behavior of this structures knowing their composition is predictable to some degree, the book is honest, but mixing what i know of engineering with tissues and the heart, and the tendons, and the arteries, well i don't want to lose my mind, no thank you.

Mar 26, Ben rated it really liked it Shelves: science. Very interesting book, I learned a lot. Gordon's prose is readable. He is also opinionated and throws in just the right number of anecdotes. I read this book while also watching the "Great Courses" class, "Understanding the World's Greatest Structures," by Stephen Ressler, and think those lectures covered a lot of the same material but with more compelling examples, buildings and bridges.

Apr 23, Aaron rated it really liked it Shelves: engineering. Structures is, in terms of classes at the University of Florida, Mechanics of Materials and its lab, as well as Mechanical Design 1 and 2. Anything that is covered in these classes is covered here with a bit less math. Yet, while the textbooks for these classes may be dry and direct, Gordon is willing to make jokes, go on tangents, and explore his opinions. This makes an engineering book- beyond all expectations- a page turner.

More than one of my professors at UF used to be a consultant. When th Structures is, in terms of classes at the University of Florida, Mechanics of Materials and its lab, as well as Mechanical Design 1 and 2.

When things blew up or went wrong, it was there job to go to court and point fingers after having studied the shit out of whatever blew up. And these stories were always the best stories. Fatigue failure? The best examples are non-examples. The last few chapters are calls to action: Failures in structures are almost always due to lazy designers or lazy manufacturing and these are critical moral failures of Biblical proportions.

Parallel to this is failures in aesthetics: an engineer is mostly likely designing something that many people will use. The Spartan ethic of functionalism is too narrow and close-minded. Structures is a good book for the young engineer or the layman. It gives a -forgive me- structure to one's thoughts about structures.

Because it deals with not just buildings, but vehicles, tools, and living things --like us-- it is important for the construction worker, the mechanic and the doctor. Jul 05, Evan added it. Very good. Goes over pretty much all aspects of design and the physical areas of structure.

A lot of good examples and illustrations. A little outdated but still fantastic! Irreverent and focused on accidents and what for most of human history has been pragmatic guesses and extrapolations rather than maths, I enjoyed it.

Nov 26, Santosh Vadlamani rated it really liked it. The structures gets stretched at parts, but still a really good read if interested in strength of materials and stuff. May 08, Marcos rated it it was amazing.

As a former structural engineer, it'd be nice to have known about books like this during university. Just for a different and less formal perspective. Feb 21, Max Van Meer rated it liked it. Sooner or later the weight will fall to the ground and the strain energy will be released; but it is the business of a structure to delay such events for a season, for a lifetime or for thousands of years.

All structures will be broken or destroyed in the end -just as all people will die in the end. It is the purpose of medicine and engineering to postpone these occurrences for a de "It is energetically advantageous for a weight to fall to the ground, for strain energy to be released -and so on.

It is the purpose of medicine and engineering to postpone these occurrences for a decent interval. With a background in mechanical engineering, I did enjoy the historical anecdotes and the occasional practical note.

However, the author spends so much time elaborating on basic concepts like tension, stress and strain that I'm not sure that I'd recommend it to anyone who has followed at least a basic course in mechanics. His switching between serious explanations and silly jokes doesn't feel well-balanced either - I, for one, am not interested in the Poisson's ratio of the author's tummy.

Moreover, for a book about structures, this book is structured very poorly. There's no conclusion and each section of every chapter is a completely different subject without clear coherence or story. If you have zero prior knowledge of mechanics, his detailed explanations, mixed with humour and history, might be just the right accessible starting point.

To anyone else, I would not recommend it. Jan 23, Andreas rated it it was amazing. As an aspiring engineer, this book reaffirmed why I want to be an engineer.

Every chapter was delightfully written and logically structured, with lots of short examples from history or thought experiments with accompanying images.

The book incorporated a fair bit of math, but it was simple to understand. If you intend to use the principles of this book in your own life, I suggest taking notes in a separate notebook. Perhaps my favorite chapter was the last of the book Chapter 15 , in which J. Gordon discusses the relationship between beauty and functionality in structures, and how beauty has declined in the design process of recent years.

This chapter deeply resonated with me, although I can't say exactly why, and prompted some thought-provoking conversations with other members of my household. Overall, I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the rich history and design process of the structures of our daily lives.

It makes a great gift to the middle or high schooler in your life considering a career in engineering! Nov 29, Mohamed Almahdi rated it it was amazing. This book explains the engineering principles of mechanical structures to the public in an interesting approach that gives examples and case studies that are directly related to the human species experience in history and present.

Although, the intent of such popular-engineering book is to simplify the engineering concept found in the field of mechanics of materials to the public, the author does not present the topic in a shallow manner. Besides the popular-engineering content that reflects the This book explains the engineering principles of mechanical structures to the public in an interesting approach that gives examples and case studies that are directly related to the human species experience in history and present.

I believe that individuals who belong to engineering disciplines will find the book very interesting and probably entertaining. I would indeed recommend it to the highly devoted students or practitioners in the field of civil and mechanical engineering. Dec 28, EG Gilbert rated it really liked it. Full of fundamentals and excellent diagrams illustrating basic principles of elasticity, tension, compression, shear, and torsion.

Examples go back further than ancient Greece and work their way to the 20th century. If you can get past the condescending tone and the anachronistic word choices of a professor assuming all his readers are male, you can learn a great deal.

What are Structures? A structure is a collection of materials intended to sustain loads. Structures occur in nature as well as in the man-made world. Our bodies, for example, consist of structures like bones and muscle tissue, flower petals are, and tree bark is other examples of natural structures.

Artificial, man-made structures began not that long ago. The modern study of structures began within the seventeenth century when Galileo switched his career — due to threats from the Catholic Church — from astronomy to the study of the character of physical materials. Robert Hooke also started to work on the subject in the same century.

He discovered that one fundamental principle of structures is that they have to push back with force proportional to the weight it has to support. Stress measures the force by which atoms and molecules within the material are being pushed apart, and it is measured as a function of force and area. Strain, on the other hand, describes how far atoms of the material are being pushed apart. Strain is a function of the length of an object after applying the force, with its original length.

It defines the relationship between stress force per unit area and strain proportional deformation in a material. They knew that it was best to avoid tensile forces and preferably use compressive forces.

Compression structures rarely collapse due to high stress such as tension structures. They only tend to fall when there is a lack of stability or shearing. Shearing happens when one part of the material slides past another when the shearing becomes critical it can cause a collapse. Collapse from compression is called compression failure and usually happens when shearing occurs at a 45 degree. Building a roof represents a challenge.

And by doing so, one can adjust the design to have a more functional, reliable and safe project. It is a book that will definitely increase your 3D CAD design efficiency. Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter Share on linkedin LinkedIn Share on pinterest Pinterest Kerry Stevenson Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8, stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in , with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world.

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