Structures or Why Things Don't Fall Down (Paperback, Softcover Repri)

1 The structures in our lives - or how to communicate with engineers.- One The difficult birth of the science of elasticity.- 2 Why structures carry loads - or the springiness of solids.- 3 The invention of stress and strain - or Baron Cauchy and the decipherment of Young's modulus.- 4 Designing for safety - or can you really trust strength calculations?.- 5 Strain energy and modem fracture mechanics - with a digression on bows, catapults and kangaroos.- Two Tension structures.- 6 Tension structures and pressure vessels - with some remarks on boilers, bats and Chinese junks.- 7 Joints, fastenings and people - also about creep and chariot wheels.- 8 Soft materials and living structures - or how to design a worm.- Three Compression and bending structures.- 9 Walls, arches and dams - or cloud-capp'd towers and the stability of masonry.- 10 Something about bridges - or Saint Benezet and Saint Isambard.- 11 The advantage of being a beam - with observations on roofs, trusses and masts.- 12 The mysteries of shear and torsion - or Polaris and the bias-cut nightie.- 13 The various ways of failing in compression - or sandwiches, skulls and Dr Euler.- Four And the consequence was....- 14 The philosophy of design - or the shape, the weight and the cost.- 15 A chapter of accidents - a study in sin, error and metal fatigue.- 16 Efficiency and aesthetics - or the world we have to live in.- Appendix 1 Handbooks and formulae.- Appendix 2 Beam theory.- Appendix 3 Torsion.- Appendix 4 The efficiency of columns and panels under compression loads.- Suggestions for further study.