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Index
Cover
Other books in the 101 Things I Learned® series
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
1 | Civil engineering is the grandparent of all engineering.
2 | Engineering succeeds and fails because of the black box.
3 | The heart of engineering isn’t calculation; it’s problem solving.
4 | You are a vector.
5 | Every problem is built on familiar principles.
6 | Every problem is unique.
7 | “Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out.”
8 | An object receives a force, experiences stress, and exhibits strain.
9 | When a force acts on an object, three things can happen.
10 | As a force acting on a fixed object increases, three things happen.
11 | Four material characteristics
12 | Materials compete.
13 | A battery works because of corrosion.
14 | Harder materials don’t ensure longevity.
15 | Soldiers shouldn’t march across a bridge.
16 | Why Galloping Gertie collapsed
17 | Softer materials aren’t always more protective.
18 | Buildings want to float.
19 | Automobiles want to fly.
20 | The ground effect
21 | A roundabout is the safest, most efficient intersection.
22 | Friction is the enemy of a rolling object, but it is what allows it to roll.
23 | Accuracy and precision are different things.
24 | There’s always a trade-off.
25 | Quantification is approximation.
26 | Random hypothesis #1
27 | Engineers wear a belt and suspenders.
28 | A triangle is inherently stable.
29 | The complexity of a truss is a product of simplicity.
30 | Structures are built from the bottom up, but designed from the top down.
31 | The contents of a building might weigh more than the building.
32 | A skyscraper is a vertically cantilevered beam.
33 | Earthquake design: let it move a lot or not at all.
34 | Make sure it doesn’t work the wrong way.
35 | Kansas City Hyatt walkway collapse
36 | The best beam shape is an I—or better yet, an I.
37 | Get even more out of a beam.
38 | “Inventing is the mixing of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less materials you need.”
39 | A masonry arch gets stronger as it does more work.
40 | The four eras of the wall
41 | The first building code
42 | Drawings explain only some things.
43 | Concrete doesn’t dry; it cures.
44 | Concrete and cement are different things.
45 | Concrete and steel are ancient, not modern, materials.
46 | 3 stages of manufacturing
47 | More inspections and fewer inspections both produce more errors.
48 | Early decisions have the greatest impact.
49 | Working faster doesn’t save money.
50 | Perfect reliability isn’t always desirable.
51 | Human time to failure is 1,000 years.
52 | Few customers will pay for a perfectly engineered product.
53 | The Ford Pinto wasn’t unsafe.
54 | Be careful when asking a part to do more than one thing.
55 | Design a part to fail.
56 | Keep one hand in your pocket.
57 | Keep one leg still.
58 | How to read a topographic plan
59 | Balance cut and fill.
60 | Work with the natural order.
61 | Air is a fluid.
62 | Heat cannot be destroyed, and cold cannot be created.
63 | A radiator doesn’t just radiate.
64 | The most reliable source of heating and cooling is the earth.
65 | Available solar energy is 50,000 times our energy need.
66 | The environmental engineering paradigm shift
67 | Ten Commandments for Environmental Engineers
68 | Water is constant.
69 | Water recycling
70 | Wastewater treatment imitates nature.
71 | Don’t presume the solution.
72 | Think systematically.
73 | “We looked at the program and divided it into the essential elements, which turned out to be thirty-odd."
74 | Think systemically.
75 | A successful system won’t necessarily work at a different scale.
76 | The behavior of simple systems and complex systems can be predicted. In-between systems: not so much.
77 | Stop a crack by rounding it off.
78 | Seek negative feedback.
79 | Enlarge the problem space.
80 | The Tunkhannock Viaduct
81 | Almost everything is a chemical, and almost every chemical is dangerous.
82 | A chemical equation isn’t exactly an equation.
83 | Equilibrium is a dynamic, not static, state.
84 | An electric current works only if it can return to its source.
85 | A seesaw works by balancing moments.
86 | Center of gravity
87 | It’s a column, not a support column.
88 | Articulate the why, not just the what.
89 | All engineers calculate. Good engineers communicate.
90 | How to read, but not necessarily name, a cantilever bridge
91 | Random hypothesis #2
92 | Now you’re the chord. Next you’ll be the joint.
93 | The engineering of satisfaction
94 | Engineering events are human events.
95 | There’s design besides the design.
96 | Identify a benchmark against which outcomes will be measured.
97 | “The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing.”
98 | While getting the one thing right, do more than one thing.
99 | The fix for an apparent engineering problem might not be an engineering fix.
100 | Engineering usually isn’t inventing the wheel; it’s improving the wheel.
101 | The Great Continuum
Notes
Index
About the Authors
Sneak Peek
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