Download or read book The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering written by Sanjoy Mahajan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-11-21 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tools to make hard problems easier to solve. In this book, Sanjoy Mahajan shows us that the way to master complexity is through insight rather than precision. Precision can overwhelm us with information, whereas insight connects seemingly disparate pieces of information into a simple picture. Unlike computers, humans depend on insight. Based on the author's fifteen years of teaching at MIT, Cambridge University, and Olin College, The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering shows us how to build insight and find understanding, giving readers tools to help them solve any problem in science and engineering. To master complexity, we can organize it or discard it. The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering first teaches the tools for organizing complexity, then distinguishes the two paths for discarding complexity: with and without loss of information. Questions and problems throughout the text help readers master and apply these groups of tools. Armed with this three-part toolchest, and without complicated mathematics, readers can estimate the flight range of birds and planes and the strength of chemical bonds, understand the physics of pianos and xylophones, and explain why skies are blue and sunsets are red. The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.
Download or read book Street Fighting Mathematics written by Sanjoy Mahajan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-03-05 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An antidote to mathematical rigor mortis, teaching how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In problem solving, as in street fighting, rules are for fools: do whatever works—don't just stand there! Yet we often fear an unjustified leap even though it may land us on a correct result. Traditional mathematics teaching is largely about solving exactly stated problems exactly, yet life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions. This engaging book is an antidote to the rigor mortis brought on by too much mathematical rigor, teaching us how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In Street-Fighting Mathematics, Sanjoy Mahajan builds, sharpens, and demonstrates tools for educated guessing and down-and-dirty, opportunistic problem solving across diverse fields of knowledge—from mathematics to management. Mahajan describes six tools: dimensional analysis, easy cases, lumping, picture proofs, successive approximation, and reasoning by analogy. Illustrating each tool with numerous examples, he carefully separates the tool—the general principle—from the particular application so that the reader can most easily grasp the tool itself to use on problems of particular interest. Street-Fighting Mathematics grew out of a short course taught by the author at MIT for students ranging from first-year undergraduates to graduate students ready for careers in physics, mathematics, management, electrical engineering, computer science, and biology. They benefited from an approach that avoided rigor and taught them how to use mathematics to solve real problems. Street-Fighting Mathematics will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.
Download or read book The Art of Doing Science and Engineering written by Richard W. Hamming and published by Stripe Press. This book was released on 2020-05-26 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking treatise by one of the great mathematicians of our time, who argues that highly effective thinking can be learned. What spurs on and inspires a great idea? Can we train ourselves to think in a way that will enable world-changing understandings and insights to emerge? Richard Hamming said we can, and first inspired a generation of engineers, scientists, and researchers in 1986 with "You and Your Research," an electrifying sermon on why some scientists do great work, why most don't, why he did, and why you should, too. The Art of Doing Science and Engineering is the full expression of what "You and Your Research" outlined. It's a book about thinking; more specifically, a style of thinking by which great ideas are conceived. The book is filled with stories of great people performing mighty deeds––but they are not meant to simply be admired. Instead, they are to be aspired to, learned from, and surpassed. Hamming consistently returns to Shannon’s information theory, Einstein’s relativity, Grace Hopper’s work on high-level programming, Kaiser’s work on digital fillers, and his own error-correcting codes. He also recounts a number of his spectacular failures as clear examples of what to avoid. Originally published in 1996 and adapted from a course that Hamming taught at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, this edition includes an all-new foreword by designer, engineer, and founder of Dynamicland Bret Victor, and more than 70 redrawn graphs and charts. The Art of Doing Science and Engineering is a reminder that a childlike capacity for learning and creativity are accessible to everyone. Hamming was as much a teacher as a scientist, and having spent a lifetime forming and confirming a theory of great people, he prepares the next generation for even greater greatness.
Download or read book The Art of Insight written by Charles Kiefer and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2013-04-08 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical guide to fostering innovative insights and solutions for yourself and your organization—including online skill-building exercises. We have all experienced it: the jolt of an insight arriving like a thunderclap, unexpectedly and without warning. But what if insights could be accessed more reliably? Drawing on years of research, reflection, and experiences with colleagues, friends, and clients, Charles Kiefer and Malcolm Constable present a thorough, pragmatic approach for dependably generating fresh thoughts and perspectives. The Art of Insight features helpful exercises both in the book and online. Readers will develop their own personal approach to cultivating insights, allowing them to solve long-standing problems with confidence and ease. “Creating insights isn't a magical process—this book provides a practical framework for generating insights for yourself and your organization. We've used many of these techniques with our innovation teams and they work.” —Wayne Delker, Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Vice President, The Clorox Company
Download or read book From Insight to Innovation written by David P. Billington, Jr. and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The engineering ideas behind key twentieth-century technical innovations, from great dams and highways to the jet engine, the transistor, the microchip, and the computer. Technology is essential to modern life, yet few of us are technology-literate enough to know much about the engineering that underpins it. In this book, David P. Billington, Jr., offers accessible accounts of the key twentieth-century engineering innovations that brought us into the twenty-first century. Billington examines a series of engineering advances--from Hoover Dam and jet engines to the transistor, the microchip, the computer, and the internet--and explains how they came about and how they work.
Download or read book The Art and Science of Analyzing Software Data written by Christian Bird and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2015-09-02 with total page 673 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Art and Science of Analyzing Software Data provides valuable information on analysis techniques often used to derive insight from software data. This book shares best practices in the field generated by leading data scientists, collected from their experience training software engineering students and practitioners to master data science. The book covers topics such as the analysis of security data, code reviews, app stores, log files, and user telemetry, among others. It covers a wide variety of techniques such as co-change analysis, text analysis, topic analysis, and concept analysis, as well as advanced topics such as release planning and generation of source code comments. It includes stories from the trenches from expert data scientists illustrating how to apply data analysis in industry and open source, present results to stakeholders, and drive decisions. Presents best practices, hints, and tips to analyze data and apply tools in data science projects Presents research methods and case studies that have emerged over the past few years to further understanding of software data Shares stories from the trenches of successful data science initiatives in industry
Download or read book Writing for Science and Engineering written by Heather Silyn-Roberts and published by Newnes. This book was released on 2013 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resumen: Are you a post-graduate student in Engineering, Science or Technology who needs to know how to: Prepare abstracts, theses and journal papers Present your work orally Present a progress report to your funding body Would you like some guidance aimed specifically at your subject area? ... This is the book for you; a practical guide to all aspects of post-graduate documentation for Engineering, Science and Technology students, which will prove indispensable to readers. Writing for Science and Engineering will prove invaluable in all areas of research and writing due its clear, concise style. The practical advice contained within the pages alongside numerous examples to aid learning will make the preparation of documentation much easier for all students.
Download or read book The Nexus written by Julio Mario Ottino and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why today’s complex problems demand a radically new way of thinking—one in which art, technology, and science converge. Today’s complex problems demand a radically new way of thinking—one in which art, technology, and science converge to expand our creativity and augment our insight. Creativity must be combined with the ability to execute; the innovators of the future will have to understand this balance and manage such complexities as climate change and pandemics. The place of this convergence is the Nexus. In this provocative and visually striking book, Julio Mario Ottino and Bruce Mau offer a guide for navigating the intersections of art, technology, and science. The Nexus brings together word and image to prepare us—individuals and organizations alike—for the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. Compelling historic examples illuminate the present, from the Renaissance, when the domains were one, to the twentieth century, with intense, collective creative outpourings from places as different as the Bauhaus and Bell Labs. Leaders must be able to grasp simplicity in complexity and complexity in simplicity—and embrace the powerful idea of complementarity, where opposing extremes coexist and our thinking expands. Innovation needs more than managing. Managers use maps; leaders develop compasses.
Download or read book Network Science written by Ernesto Estrada and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-08-24 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Network Science is the emerging field concerned with the study of large, realistic networks. This interdisciplinary endeavor, focusing on the patterns of interactions that arise between individual components of natural and engineered systems, has been applied to data sets from activities as diverse as high-throughput biological experiments, online trading information, smart-meter utility supplies, and pervasive telecommunications and surveillance technologies. This unique text/reference provides a fascinating insight into the state of the art in network science, highlighting the commonality across very different areas of application and the ways in which each area can be advanced by injecting ideas and techniques from another. The book includes contributions from an international selection of experts, providing viewpoints from a broad range of disciplines. It emphasizes networks that arise in nature—such as food webs, protein interactions, gene expression, and neural connections—and in technology—such as finance, airline transport, urban development and global trade. Topics and Features: begins with a clear overview chapter to introduce this interdisciplinary field; discusses the classic network science of fixed connectivity structures, including empirical studies, mathematical models and computational algorithms; examines time-dependent processes that take place over networks, covering topics such as synchronisation, and message passing algorithms; investigates time-evolving networks, such as the World Wide Web and shifts in topological properties (connectivity, spectrum, percolation); explores applications of complex networks in the physical and engineering sciences, looking ahead to new developments in the field. Researchers and professionals from disciplines as varied as computer science, mathematics, engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, neuroscience, epidemiology, and the social sciences will all benefit from this topical and broad overview of current activities and grand challenges in the unfolding field of network science.
Download or read book MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING written by V. RAGHAVAN and published by PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This well-established and widely adopted book, now in its Sixth Edition, provides a thorough analysis of the subject in an easy-to-read style. It analyzes, systematically and logically, the basic concepts and their applications to enable the students to comprehend the subject with ease. The book begins with a clear exposition of the background topics in chemical equilibrium, kinetics, atomic structure and chemical bonding. Then follows a detailed discussion on the structure of solids, crystal imperfections, phase diagrams, solid-state diffusion and phase transformations. This provides a deep insight into the structural control necessary for optimizing the various properties of materials. The mechanical properties covered include elastic, anelastic and viscoelastic behaviour, plastic deformation, creep and fracture phenomena. The next four chapters are devoted to a detailed description of electrical conduction, superconductivity, semiconductors, and magnetic and dielectric properties. The final chapter on ‘Nanomaterials’ is an important addition to the sixth edition. It describes the state-of-art developments in this new field. This eminently readable and student-friendly text not only provides a masterly analysis of all the relevant topics, but also makes them comprehensible to the students through the skillful use of well-drawn diagrams, illustrative tables, worked-out examples, and in many other ways. The book is primarily intended for undergraduate students of all branches of engineering (B.E./B.Tech.) and postgraduate students of Physics, Chemistry and Materials Science. KEY FEATURES • All relevant units and constants listed at the beginning of each chapter • A note on SI units and a full table of conversion factors at the beginning • A new chapter on ‘Nanomaterials’ describing the state-of-art information • Examples with solutions and problems with answers • About 350 multiple choice questions with answers
Download or read book Engineering and the Mind s Eye written by Eugene S. Ferguson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1994-03-29 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this insightful and incisive essay, Eugene Ferguson demonstrates that good engineering is as much a matter of intuition and nonverbal thinking as of equations and computation. He argues that a system of engineering education that ignores nonverbal thinking will produce engineers who are dangerously ignorant of the many ways in which the real world differs from the mathematical models constructed in academic minds.
Download or read book A First Course in Dimensional Analysis written by Juan G. Santiago and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to dimensional analysis, a method of scientific analysis used to investigate and simplify complex physical phenomena, demonstrated through a series of engaging examples. This book offers an introduction to dimensional analysis, a powerful method of scientific analysis used to investigate and simplify complex physical phenomena. The method enables bold approximations and the generation of testable hypotheses. The book explains these analyses through a series of entertaining applications; students will learn to analyze, for example, the limits of world-record weight lifters, the distance an electric submarine can travel, how an upside-down pendulum is similar to a running velociraptor, and the number of Olympic rowers required to double boat speed. The book introduces the approach through easy-to-follow, step-by-step methods that show how to identify the essential variables describing a complex problem; explore the dimensions of the problem and recast it to reduce complexity; leverage physical insights and experimental observations to further reduce complexity; form testable scientific hypotheses; combine experiments and analysis to solve a problem; and collapse and present experimental measurements in a compact form. Each chapter ends with a summary and problems for students to solve. Taken together, the analyses and examples demonstrate the value of dimensional analysis and provide guidance on how to combine and enhance dimensional analysis with physical insights. The book can be used by undergraduate students in physics, engineering, chemistry, biology, sports science, and astronomy.
Download or read book Beyond Engineering written by Robert Pool and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-07-17 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have long recognized technology as a driving force behind much historical and cultural change. The invention of the printing press initiated the Reformation. The development of the compass ushered in the Age of Exploration and the discovery of the New World. The cotton gin created the conditions that led to the Civil War. Now, in Beyond Engineering, science writer Robert Pool turns the question around to examine how society shapes technology. Drawing on such disparate fields as history, economics, risk analysis, management science, sociology, and psychology, Pool illuminates the complex, often fascinating interplay between machines and society, in a book that will revolutionize how we think about technology. We tend to think that reason guides technological development, that engineering expertise alone determines the final form an invention takes. But if you look closely enough at the history of any invention, says Pool, you will find that factors unrelated to engineering seem to have an almost equal impact. In his wide-ranging volume, he traces developments in nuclear energy, automobiles, light bulbs, commercial electricity, and personal computers, to reveal that the ultimate shape of a technology often has as much to do with outside and unforeseen forces. For instance, Pool explores the reasons why steam-powered cars lost out to internal combustion engines. He shows that the Stanley Steamer was in many ways superior to the Model T--it set a land speed record in 1906 of more than 127 miles per hour, it had no transmission (and no transmission headaches), and it was simpler (one Stanley engine had only twenty-two moving parts) and quieter than a gas engine--but the steamers were killed off by factors that had little or nothing to do with their engineering merits, including the Stanley twins' lack of business acumen and an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease. Pool illuminates other aspects of technology as well. He traces how seemingly minor decisions made early along the path of development can have profound consequences further down the road, and perhaps most important, he argues that with the increasing complexity of our technological advances--from nuclear reactors to genetic engineering--the number of things that can go wrong multiplies, making it increasingly difficult to engineer risk out of the equation. Citing such catastrophes as Bhopal, Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez, the Challenger, and Chernobyl, he argues that is it time to rethink our approach to technology. The days are gone when machines were solely a product of larger-than-life inventors and hard-working engineers. Increasingly, technology will be a joint effort, with its design shaped not only by engineers and executives but also psychologists, political scientists, management theorists, risk specialists, regulators and courts, and the general public. Whether discussing bovine growth hormone, molten-salt reactors, or baboon-to-human transplants, Beyond Engineering is an engaging look at modern technology and an illuminating account of how technology and the modern world shape each other.
Download or read book Engineering and Living Systems written by David D. Rutstein and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 1970 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book outlines for the first time a sound plan for interrelating the physical and engineering sciences and mathematics with biology and medicine. The walls of narrowing specialization that have kept these disciplines apart are broken down. The proposed program points up the need for an administrative structure to aid the flow of concepts, ideas, knowledge, and technology among those concerned, both within and without the university. The kinds of experts needed to bridge the existing gap between the two groups of disciplines are defined. Educational programs are outlined for full-time specialists, research participants, and practitioners in both engineering and medicine. A careful description is given of the stepwise process, including interaction with industry to apply development in the engineering sense to biology and medicine. A detailed example of the application of systems analysis and operations research to the development of a specific medical care program is also included. This book is a distillate of the general principles learned during the exploration of a joint program between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was summarized by the authors in a Report to the National Academy of Engineering. The authors recognize the impossibility of providing on their own the authoritative grasp necessary to provide specific recommendations for the future in the many field comprised by engineering and living systems. Cooperation was obtained of outstanding experts on the two faculties, who prepared sixteen task group reports under the following headings: artificial internal organs; bioengineering curricula; biological control systems; continuing education; diagnostic instrumentation; diagnostic processes; image processing and visualization techniques; medical care microsystems; neurophysiology; organ and cell culture and storage; physiological monitoring; physiological systems analysis; regionalization of health services (macrosystems); sensory aids; skeletal prostheses; and subcellular engineering. The task group reports, included in this book, provide the documentation for the general conclusions of the authors. This book supplements existing medical programs with a new research approach to increase fundamental knowledge, and points the way to better medical care through more efficient application of engineering, technology, and systems development.
Download or read book The Art Of Probability written by Richard W. Hamming and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering accessible and nuanced coverage, Richard W. Hamming discusses theories of probability with unique clarity and depth. Topics covered include the basic philosophical assumptions, the nature of stochastic methods, and Shannon entropy. One of the best introductions to the topic, The Art of Probability is filled with unique insights and tricks worth knowing.
Download or read book The Art of Risk written by Kayt Sukel and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are risk-takers born or made? Why are some more willing to go out on a limb (so to speak) than others? How do we weigh the value of opportunities large or small that may have the potential to change the course of our lives? These are just a few of the questions that author Kayt Sukel tackles, applying the latest research in neuroscience and psychology to compelling real-world situations. Building on a portfolio of work that has appeared in such publications as Scientific American, Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and more, Sukel offers an in-depth look at risk-taking and its role in the many facets of life that resonates on a personal level. Smart, progressive, and truly enlightening, The Art of Risk blends riveting case studies and hard-hitting science to explore risk-taking and how it impacts decision-making in work, play, love, and life, providing insight in understanding individual behavior and furthering personal success.
Download or read book Science from Sight to Insight written by Alan G. Gross and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Dalton’s molecular structures. Scatter plots and geometric diagrams. Watson and Crick’s double helix. The way in which scientists understand the world—and the key concepts that explain it—is undeniably bound up in not only words, but images. Moreover, from PowerPoint presentations to articles in academic journals, scientific communication routinely relies on the relationship between words and pictures. In Science from Sight to Insight, Alan G. Gross and Joseph E. Harmon present a short history of the scientific visual, and then formulate a theory about the interaction between the visual and textual. With great insight and admirable rigor, the authors argue that scientific meaning itself comes from the complex interplay between the verbal and the visual in the form of graphs, diagrams, maps, drawings, and photographs. The authors use a variety of tools to probe the nature of scientific images, from Heidegger’s philosophy of science to Peirce’s semiotics of visual communication. Their synthesis of these elements offers readers an examination of scientific visuals at a much deeper and more meaningful level than ever before.
