This textbook provides an introduction to design for function, using many examples of manufactured artifacts and living organisms to demonstrate common themes and fundamental principles. Examples forcefully illustrate the importance of the basic design principles related to material properties, physical principles, and energy expenditure. The author also discusses the relation of aesthetic and functional design, the crucial connection of design to production in artifacts, and reproduction in organisms. The author has thoroughly updated this second edition with more examples and a new chapter with actual design case studies to illustrate key ideas. In addition, the text contains many new exercises that reinforce important points in the text.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"...the book succeeds admirably...gives a sufficiently broad treatment of design principles to be recommended for use far beyond the shores of Great Britain. Coverage is both fresh and nontrivial." R. J. Foster, Applied Mechanics Review
"A successful effort, it is recommended for collections serving undergraduates in engineering or science." G. E. Johnson, Choice
"...the book is really fun to read if you have enough background...Professor French is sharing the wisdom accumulated during a long and productive professional life, and doing this in an interestinf and provocative manner." Appllied Mechanics Review
From reviews of the First Edition...
"A successful effort, it is recommended for collections serving undergraduates in engineering or science." G. E. Johnson, Choice
"...the book is really fun to read if you have enough background...Professor French is sharing the wisdom accumulated during a long and productive professional life, and doing this in an interestinf and provocative manner." Appllied Mechanics Review
From reviews of the First Edition...
Book Description
This introduction to design for function uses many examples of manufactured artifacts and living organisms to demonstrate common themes and fundamental principles. The updated edition includes more examples and a new chapter with actual design case studies.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
BUY THIS BOOK!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Invention and Evolution:Design in Nature and Engineering (Paperback)
This is a beautiful book. French talks about energy, form,mechanism, and economy in natural and man-made things. He compares birds to planes in terms of fuel-capacity, energy conversion efficiency, drag, etc. He compares suspension bridges and dinosaurs. He provides examples of neat inventions and the thought that has gone into them (every- thing from steam-catapults to toy cars to grommets). This is "How Things Work" for the non-moron crowd.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Good only for inspiration.,
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This review is from: Invention and Evolution: Design in Nature and Engineering (Paperback)
I used this for a design in nature course, yet we ended up spending more time reading journals than really covering any material in the book. Why? Because this book is only useful as a primer for the thought of doing a design by looking at nature. I didn't really learn or gain any real information by reading this book except for the concept that you can make a very highly simplified assumption of a design created by nature to solve a problem. For instance, there is nothing more complicated than saying that you can approximate the jump of a grasshopper by a single linear spring or understand that if you look at a wing of a bird you find a similar shape as what you could use on an airplane. This isn't for "the smart crowd" as stated by the previous reviewer. Anybody with a high school physics education could easily understand it but in my personal opinion you're better off finding more inspiration from a popular mechanics magazine.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Suppose we are asked which of these three is the odd one out, a waterfall, a buttercup and a steam locomotive. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
replicative methods, unlimited rotation, nesting order, inertial power, regenerative principle, roll centre, million joules, bath plug, least constraint, steam catapult Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Cambridge University Press, New Scientist, Sherlock Holmes New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Suppose we are asked which of these three is the odd one out, a waterfall, a buttercup and a steam locomotive. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
replicative methods, unlimited rotation, nesting order, inertial power, regenerative principle, roll centre, million joules, bath plug, least constraint, steam catapult Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Cambridge University Press, New Scientist, Sherlock Holmes New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 31
books:
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26
books
cite this book:
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- Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem-Solving 3rd Edition by Alex F. Osborn on page 296, page 297, and Back Matter
- Conceptual Design for Engineers by M. J. French on page 198, and Back Matter
- On the Origin of Species (Penguin Classics) by Charles Darwin on page 18
- Animal Mechanics by R. McNeill Alexander in Back Matter
- Functional Design In Fishes by R Mcn Alexander on page 163
See all 31 books this book cites
- Design Paradigms: A Sourcebook for Creative Visualization by Warren K. Wake in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach by Gerhard Pahl in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Pahl/Beitz Konstruktionslehre: Grundlagen erfolgreicher Produktentwicklung. Methoden und Anwendung (German Edition) by Gerhard Pahl on page 33
- Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies by Richard Buchanan on page 65
- Machine Design: A CAD Approach by Andrew D. Dimarogonas on page 31
See all 26 books citing this book
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