Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People - Softcover

Vogel, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393319903 ISBN 13: 9780393319903

Verlag: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Vogel Steven

Über diesen Titel

Críticas:

"Fascinating.... [Vogel's] interests seemingly know no bounds, and he takes the readers along with him on a complex, absorbing journey of exploration notable for its unexpected twists and turns."

"A book that should be enjoyed and understood by intelligent non-scientists as much as by scientists ... entertaining and illuminating."

"Vogel's latest success informs and delights."

Reseña del editor:

Nature and humans build their devices with the same earthly materials and use them in the same air and water, pulled by the same gravity. Why, then, do their designs diverge so sharply? Humans, for instance, love right angles, while nature's angles are rarely right and usually rounded. Our technology goes around on wheels--and on rotating pulleys, gears, shafts, and cams--yet in nature only the tiny propellers of bacteria spin as true wheels. Our hinges turn because hard parts slide around each other, whereas nature's hinges (a rabbit's ear, for example) more often swing by bending flexible materials. In this marvelously surprising, witty book, Steven Vogel compares these two mechanical worlds, introduces the reader to his field of biomechanics, and explains how the nexus of physical law, size, and convenience of construction determine the designs of both people and nature. Steven Vogel teaches at Duke University.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: W. W. Norton & Company
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0393319903
• ISBN 13: 9780393319903
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 384
• Zeichner: Davis Kathryn K.