Ships, bridges, and tall buildings are marvels of engineering. They are designed to be strong and safe. But even state-of-the-art designs don't always hold up in the real world. Learn about the biggest engineering goofs throughout history—from bridges that collapsed to ships that sank. Discover how engineering mistakes have also led to improvements, such as stricter building regulations and the use of sturdier materials.

Engaging text and high-interest humor coupled with curricular STEM and history content make this series a hit!

It’s hands-on science with a capital “E”—for engineering. Beginning with the toppling of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, to the destructive, laserlike sunbeams bouncing off London’s infamous “Fryscraper” in 2013, here is an illustrated tour of the greatest engineering disasters in history, from the bestselling author of The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science. Each engineering disaster includes a simple, exciting experiment or two using everyday household items to explain the underlying science and put learning into action. Understand the Titanic’s demise by sinking an ice-cube-tray ocean liner in the bathtub. Stomp on a tube of toothpaste to demonstrate what happens to non-Newtonian fluids under pressure—and how a ruptured tank sent a tsunami of molasses through the streets of Boston in 1919. From why the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans to the fatal design flaw in the Sherman tank, here’s a book of science at its most riveting.

Describes engineering disasters, such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the space shuttle Challenger, and Three Mile Island, and explains what was learned from each incident

Stand back! Genius at work! Encase your little bother in a giant soap bubble. Drop mentos into a bottle of diet soda and stand back as a geyser erupts. Launch a rocket made from a film canister. Here are 64 amazing experiments that snap, crackle, pop, ooze, crash, boom, and stink. Giant air cannons. Home-made lightning. Marshmallows on steroids. Matchbox microphones. There’s even an introduction to alchemy. (Not sure what that is? Think “medieval wizard.”) None of the experiments requires special training, and all use stuff found in the kitchen or in the garden shed. You’d be irresponsible not to try them. ATTENTION, PARENTS: Yes, your kids may need your help with a few experiments. And yes, sometimes it may get a tad messy. But it’s not pure mayhem. The balloon rocket whizzing through the garden? It demonstrates Newton’s Third Law of Motion. That chunk of potato launched across the kitchen from a tube? Welcome to Boyle’s Law. Every experiment demonstrated real science, at its most memorable.

“Though ours is an age of high technology, the essence of what engineering is and what engineers do is not common knowledge. Even the most elementary of principles upon which great bridges, jumbo jets, or super computers are built are alien concepts to many. This is so in part because engineering as a human endeavor is not yet integrated into our culture and intellectual tradition. And while educators are currently wrestling with the problem of introducing technology into conventional academic curricula, thus better preparing today’s students for life in a world increasingly technological, there is as yet no consensus as to how technological literacy can best be achieved. " I believe, and I argue in this essay, that the ideas of engineering are in fact in our bones and part of our human nature and experience. Furthermore, I believe that an understanding and an appreciation of engineers and engineering can be gotten without an engineering or technical education. Thus I hope that the technologically uninitiated will come to read what I have written as an introduction to technology. Indeed, this book is my answer to the questions 'What is engineering?' and 'What do engineers do?'" - Henry Petroski, To Engineer is Human

A woman is operated on while she's awake... A plane runs out of gas while circling an airport for 30 minutes... A passenger liner is mistaken for an enemy fighter and shot down... A company invests in a new system that will cost them money... What do these failure have in common? How can we prevent them from happening again?

This book examines the importance of engineering design as well as society's ability to respond to design flaws.

Component failures result from a combination of factors involving materials science, mechanics, thermodynamics, corrosion, and tribology. With the right guidance, you don’t have to be an authority in all of these areas to become skilled at diagnosing and preventing failures. Based on the author’s more than thirty years of experience, Practical Plant Failure Analysis: A Guide to Understanding Machinery Deterioration and Improving Equipment Reliability is a down-to-earth guide to improving machinery maintenance and reliability. Illustrated with hundreds of diagrams and photographs, this book examines... · When and how to conduct a physical failure analysis · Basic material properties including heat treating mechanisms, work hardening, and the effects of temperature changes on material properties · The differences in appearance between ductile overload, brittle overload, and fatigue failures · High cycle fatigue and how to differentiate between high stress concentrations and high operating stresses · Low cycle fatigue and unusual fatigue situations · Lubrication and its influence on the three basic bearing designs · Ball and roller bearings, gears, fasteners, V-belts, and synchronous belts Taking a detailed and systematic approach, Practical Plant Failure Analysis thoroughly explains the four major failure mechanisms—wear, corrosion, overload, and fatigue—as well as how to identify them. The author clearly identifies how these mechanisms appear in various components and supplies convenient charts that demonstrate how to identify the specific causes of failure.