The New Science of Strong Materials: Or Why You Don't Fall Through the FloorWhy isn't wood weaker that it is? Why isn't steel stronger? Why does glass sometimes shatter and sometimes bend like spring? Why do ships break in half? What is a liquid and is treacle one? All these are questions about the nature of materials. All of them are vital to engineers but also fascinating as scientific problems. During the 250 years up to the 1920s and 1930s they had been answered largely by seeing how materials behaved in practice. But materials continued to do things that they "ought" not to have done. Only in the last 40 years have these questions begun to be answered by a new approach. Material scientists have started to look more deeply into the make-up of materials. They have found many surprises; above all, perhaps, that how a material behaves depends on how perfectly - or imperfectly - its atoms are arranged. Using both SI and imperial units, Professor Gordon's account of material science is a demonstration of the sometimes curious and entertaining ways in which scientists isolate and solve problems. |
Other editions - View all
The New Science of Strong Materials: Or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor J. E. Gordon Limited preview - 2006 |
The New Science of Strong Materials, Or, Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor James Edward Gordon No preview available - 1976 |
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aeroplanes aircraft alloys Ångströms atoms beam bending beryllium Bessemer break bricks bridge brittle calculated cantilever carbon casein cast iron cellulose cent Chapter chemical bonds composite compression course crack tip crystalline crystals curve deflections difficult dislocations ductile elastic engineering fibre-glass Figure fracture fracture mechanism furnace glass fibres glue glued Griffith happen hardened heat holes Hooke's law hull inch interatomic interatomic force interface iron and steel joint kind large number lattice layers length less liquid load mechanical melting metal metre micron microscope mild steel MN/m² moisture molecules mould nature ordinary oxide perhaps plastics Plate plywood practice properties reason reinforced resin roughly sailing ships shape shear shearing stress simple solid stiffness strain energy stress concentration strong structure substances surface energy temperature tensile strength tensile stress tension thin things timber toughness usually weak weight whiskers whole wood wooden wrought iron Young's modulus