Nuts and Bolts

Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)

De: Roma Agrawal

Narrado por: Roma Agrawal

Duración: 8 h y 16 m

Resumen del Editor

A structural engineer examines the seven most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world.

Some of engineering's mightiest achievements are small in scale, even hidden—and yet, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world runs would not exist. In Nuts and Bolts, Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the lens, the magnet, the string, and the pump.

From the physics behind both Roman nails and modern skyscrapers to rudimentary springs that inspired lithium batteries, Agrawal shows us how even the most sophisticated items are built on the foundations of these ancient and fundamental breakthroughs in engineering. Agrawal explores an array of intricate technologies—dishwashers, spacesuits, microscopes, suspension bridges, breast pumps—making surprising connections and explaining how they work. Along the way, she recounts the stories of remarkable scientists and engineers from all over the world, and reveals how engineering has fundamentally changed the way we live.

©2023 Roma The Engineer Ltd (P)2023 Tantor

Brilliant Analysis

Everything around us is something we take for granted. Everything that is great and magnificent starts out small.

Seeing how common these objects are and how their basic understanding has led to numerous marvels and discoveries is quite interesting. Empirical instances and prospective future initiatives.

Written so skillfully that a sixth grader could understand it.

An articulate view of stuff

Roma Agrawal is an engineer, and, as an engineer myself, I can relate to how she parses her view of reality. Many of her explanations are somewhat obvious, but she covers more complex objects and systems with a surprising ability to convey the essence of how something works without becoming ensnared with details that would be too tedious for most readers to follow. As an engineer, I tend to explain in too much detail, only sometimes realizing it is time to back off when seeing my audience glazing over. It seems few are as interested in the fine details as I am :-) Of course, to make our machines function, we must acknowledge that the devil is in the details, and we can't gloss over them. But when explaining these things, it is important to convey the main concepts, and it is OK to leave some details for the student to sort out.

Roma took me deeper than I had seen before in several cases, and I learned some interesting things. But, even when the subject was somewhat mundane, and I fully understood it, Roma's clear and articulate voice was pleasant to follow, even when I had to interpret some English pronunciations that are quite foreign to this American.

Roma's concept for this book is unusual and clever. I enjoyed having her read it to me.