Product Description

Why 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96575 in Books
• Published on: 1991-03-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
James Edward Gordon was born in 1913. He took a degree in naval architecture at Glasgow University and worked in wood and steel shipyards, intending to design sailing ships. On the outbreak of the Second World War he moved to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, where he worked on wooden aircraft, plastics and unorthodox materials of all kinds. He designed the sailing rescue dinghies carried at one time by most bomber aircraft. He later became head of the plastic structures sections at Farnborough and developed a method of construction in reinforced plastics which is now used for a number of purpose in aircraft and rockets. For several frustrating years he worked in industry on the strength of glass and the growth of strong 'whisker' crystals. In 1962 he returned to government service as superintendent of an experimental branch at Waltham Abbey concerned with research and development of entirely new structural materials, most of which were based on 'whiskers'. He was Industrial Fellow Commoner at Churchill College, Cambridge, and became Professor of Materials Technology at the University of Reading, where he was later Professor Emeritus. He was awarded the British Silver Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society for work on aircraft plastics and also the Griffith Medal of the Materials Science Club for contributions to material science. His book, Structures or Why Things Don't Fall Down, is also published in Penguin. Professor Gordon died in 1998. In its obituary The Times wrote of him that he was 'one of the founders of materials science' and that he wrote 'two books of outstanding literary quality ... at once entertaining and informative, providing absorbing interest for both expert and student'.

Customer Reviews

An informative look at what holds everything together
If you have, or are presently studying science A-levels, then this book should not prove a problem. However if the mere sight of an equation, large numbers, or graphs, makes you feel weak at the knees then you can stop reading now.

To begin, the book deals with the general properties of all materials. It explains how materials are used to their best in either compression or tension, and explains the reasons behind it using facts and figures, whilst diagrams help you to understand it on the microscopic level. The influence of cracks on different substances is also discussed and the theories for why some objects are left brittle whilst others are not.

The second half of the book concerns itself with specific material groups such as timber and metals.

If you have an interested in Building, Architecture or design, you will probably find this book will enlighten you to a few things in a "non-textbook" way.

Why Can't Lectures Be This Easy To Understand?
If you have ever sat through a materials science lecture or tutorial and felt it was all beyond you this book is for you. Even if you haven't struggled, this book explains its subject in such a simple concise and above all interesting way that I can recommend it without hesitation. It is especially good to read as an introduction to the subject before you start a course in materials science/mechanical engineering. Even if you don't fall into one of the above categories but have an interest in the subject - do read it, it is not written for students or engineers especially, just for anyone with an interest. I can also recommend wholeheartedly the sister volume "Structures".

One of the must read book for all materials scientists
To understand the history of materials science is essential for modern day researchers in this field, especially the increasing usage of computing modelling requires the most basic root of every single theory. This book can provide a good introduction for this purpose, and I think that all materials students and scientists should read this book.