Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Scientific American: How Things Work Today
 
See larger image
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Scientific American: How Things Work Today [Hardcover]

Michael Wright (Editor), Mukul Patel (Editor)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --  
Paperback --  
Unknown Binding --  

Book Description

October 17, 2000
Biotechnology, computers, cell phones, and the Internet -- they're all having a major impact on our lives as the twenty-first century begins. Surrounded by today's array of new technologies, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and bewildered. For more than a century, Scientific American has made the machines and technologies that make up our world understandable. In Scientific American: How Things Work Today you'll find over 100 topics explored in easy-to-understand text and made absolutely clear with the aid of more than 600 fully annotated, three-dimensional illustrations and color photographs.

Do you know where all those stairs on the escalator go when they get to the top? Did you know that every time you use a credit card the clerk bounces a signal off a satellite to get an okay for your purchase? Have you ever wondered how your e-mail gets from here to there? Or how the signal finds your cell phone when you're hundreds of miles from home? Scientific American knows, and in Scientific American: How Things Work Today, it tells and shows you how the world around you works, with three-dimensional illustrations, diagrams, and exploded views as well as up-to-the-minute color photographs. And the explanations are in the concise, understandable language that has made Scientific American the most successful popular science magazine in the world.

Scientific American has been the authoritative popular source of science information about how the world works for more than 150 years. Now, in the first book based on the magazine's popular "Working Knowledge" column, Scientific American reveals exactly how the wonders of the modern world work. Assembled by a team of professional science and technology writers, Scientific American: How Things Work Today shows the hidden workings of satellites, the Space Shuttle, subways, sewers, the Internet, electron microscopes, and many of the other systems and devices that help make our world what it is and us who we are. With lavish pictures, photographs, and hundreds of explanations to how our world works, this book is an essential addition to every family's library.

Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," wrote Arthur C. Clarke. The technology that surrounds us now, at the dawn of the 21st century, can seem plenty advanced: a plethora of black (or light gray) boxes doing who knows what to send voices through the air, see pictures in crystal tubes, fly like a bird. We're calling spirits from the vastly deep, and they really come.

If you'd prefer not to do magic, though, this is the book for you. How does a GPS receiver know where you are? What's inside the "not user serviceable" parts of a laser printer? What's the difference between scanning and transmission electron microscopes? The explanations and diagrams in this volume are in Scientific American's distinctive style, clear and simple without being oversimplified. It's not as cute or congenial as David Macauley's The New Way Things Work, but the multicolored pictures are easier to follow and the volume is more information-dense. If you like your technology slightly drier, more technical, and less magical than Macauley provides, How Things Work Today is an excellent guide. --Mary Ellen Curtin

From the Inside Flap

Biotechnology, computers, cell phones, and the Internet -- they're all having a major impact on our lives as the twenty-first century begins. Surrounded by today's array of new technologies, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and bewildered. For more than a century, Scientific American has made the machines and technologies that make up our world understandable. In Scientific American: How Things Work Today you'll find over 100 topics explored in easy-to-understand text and made absolutely clear with the aid of more than 600 fully annotated, three-dimensional illustrations and color photographs.

Do you know where all those stairs on the escalator go when they get to the top? Did you know that every time you use a credit card the clerk bounces a signal off a satellite to get an okay for your purchase? Have you ever wondered how your e-mail gets from here to there? Or how the signal finds your cell phone when you're hundreds of miles from home? Scientific American knows, and in Scientific American: How Things Work Today, it tells and shows you how the world around you works, with three-dimensional illustrations, diagrams, and exploded views as well as up-to-the-minute color photographs. And the explanations are in the concise, understandable language that has made Scientific American the most successful popular science magazine in the world.

Scientific American has been the authoritative popular source of science information about how the world works for more than 150 years. Now, in the first book based on the magazine's popular "Working Knowledge" column, Scientific American reveals exactly how the wonders of the modern world work. Assembled by a team of professional science and technology writers, Scientific American: How Things Work Today shows the hidden workings of satellites, the Space Shuttle, subways, sewers, the Internet, electron microscopes, and many of the other systems and devices that help make our world what it is and us who we are. With lavish pictures, photographs, and hundreds of explanations to how our world works, this book is an essential addition to every family's library.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (October 17, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375410236
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375410239
  • Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Knowledgeable - must have collection, November 2, 2000
This review is from: Scientific American: How Things Work Today (Hardcover)
for all those who are fascinated by SCIAM's "working knowledge", this book is going to keep you awake nights wondering about escalators, cell phones and holograms. for others who are nevertheless curious, inquisitive and have a scientific bent of mind, this book would be poetry for your brains. read this book and the next time you see a car, you would look beyond the 4 wheels and the steering wheel! amazingly wellwritten.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for all ages, June 10, 2001
By 
Chad M. Brick (Ann Arbor, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Scientific American: How Things Work Today (Hardcover)
I have had a blast reading through this book, and have learned more practical knowledge from it than any other that I can remember.

Each pair of pages in the book describes the inner workings of many of the modern machines that we use every day, ranging from microwaves to photocopiers, from your car's turbocharger to suspension bridges. Cut-away diagrams display the innards of these machines, allowing one to see what normally only professionals and enthusiasts deal with.

The book is written in a manner that most pre-teens could understand, yet it contains more information than even the most technologically-advanced buff would ever know. An appendix in the back describes the basic scientific terms that were used through the book, for those who have yet to learn these things, or have forgotten.

I truly loved this book. It is a great feeling to have a basic understanding of how nearly everything we use works. You will never look at an escalator in the same way! This book would make an excellent gift!

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Not very interesting, December 28, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Scientific American: How Things Work Today (Hardcover)
Written in a very straightforward, boring way. A fair amount of filler. For example, in the section on Subway Stations, one of the items they point out is the "Ticket hall: Passengers buy tickets or tokens from staffed offices or from vending machines." Not very informative...

Any of the David Macaulay books would be much more interesting.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject