Why Things Break: Understanding the World by the Way It Comes Apart

By Mark Eberhart

Book Overview

Did you know-- * It took more than an iceberg to sink the Titanic. * The Challenger disaster was predicted. * Unbreakable glass dinnerware had its origin in railroad lanterns. * A football team cannot... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400047609
• ISBN13: 9781400047604
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Harmony
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.6" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Some answers;but a lot of questions remain.

I really enjoyed this book. Although I am an Engineer in my senior years; one does not really need more technical knowledge than that received in High School to enjoy this book. The author has done a fine job of communicating with lay people who may only have a passing interest in why things break. Most people ,who have little science background ,will find it a pleasure to intercourse with an extremely knowledgeable Scientist whose world includes highly complicated areas such as Quantum Mechanics. Although the author touches on some difficult areas,he always puts what he is dealinng with in language and examples that are easily grasped. You are going to learn that the sinking of the Titanic was a lot more involved than simply hitting an iceberg. And how about the fact that the Titanic had no binoculars for lookouts,insufficient lifeboats.You'll also find why so many Liberty Ships sank in the Atlanticduring WW11, without having been hit by shells,bombs ,mines or other armanents. You'll also see that the reason for their sinking was not even incorporated into the design;or for that fact,even known.Amazingly ,a fix was quickly found. Even something as simple as "unbreakable" dishes like Pyrex and Corningwareis explained. The book also discusses some simple things ;such as why snow doesn't have to be shovelled in Colorado--or did you even know that? He discusses a lot about metals,how the properties of various metals was found by trial and error;but the reason why things happened was basically unknown.He also discusses a lot about glass,particularly armored or safety glass. I once had an experience with large panels,5 X 10 feet; that were used as interior walls in buildings. Several broke for no apparent reason. The panels consisted of two sheets with a plastic film sandwiched between them. When they broke.it looked like a bullet had hit them. All the breakage radiated from one point,similar to a giant spider web. It was determined that it was caused by an impurity.Supposedly,theimpurity was a Manganese crystal that kept growing until it created enough stress to fracture the whole panel,with not a piece left bigger than a piece of popcorn. Something like you see with a rear car window in a hot parking lot or when struck a severe blow in an accident.The intent being that the pieces would be small fragments,rather than shrads that were large and would like daggers. Our panels,with the plastic layer still remained in place. I used a magnifying loop and lo,and behold,right in the center of the "Web" you could see the tiny black crystal,no more than a couple of millimeters long.I would be curious to hear from anyone else who has heard of this type of failure as it is not discussed in the book. I also had a lot of experience with "Lexan" and was very surprised to hear some of the things the author had to say about it.

A fun book to read

This book is the author's personal story of how he uncovered a (conceptually) simple explanation for the fracturing and shearing of materials, and metals in particular. As Eberhart puts it: "When these angles [characteristic of the charge density around atoms in a material] vanished, the bonds resisting shear would break. So it also seemed reasonable that the smaller this angle, the more closely the charge density of the native metal resembled that of the deforming substance...[similarly] the competition between ductile and brittle behavior would boil down to comparing different angles. A ductile material would be one in which the angle that changed during shear was small compared to the changing angle during elongation." [Page 236] Eberhart tells his story of discovery through the experience of his life, beginning with experiments he conducted with toys when only 6 years old. Along the way he illustrates the importance of material design by dissecting the cause of failure in some notorious historical examples, such as: 1) Aloha flight 243 2) The Titanic 3) Space shuttle Challenger Aloha flight 243 was doomed by metal fatigue and crack propagation. The Titanic was doomed by, among other things, a captain who was sailing too fast in iceberg-infested waters, and because the steel used in Titanic had too much sulfur, causing the steel to be brittle in the cold Atlantic. Challenger was doomed by managers who overrode the technical advice of engineers who advised against launch, and by rubber O-rings that hadn't enough plasticity at the cold temperatures present at launch. Eberhart does a nice job of placing material properties in a very broad historical context. He begins tens of thousands of years ago, describing how early hunters made stone tools by fracturing rocks. The story progresses through the development of metals, including bronze, iron, and steel. Along the way he gives interesting insight into how the characteristics of metals can be changed - sometimes dramatically - by the introduction of other atoms, and by how the material is worked. Hardened steel, for example, is created by adding small amounts of carbon to iron (a soft metal in its pure state). Similarly, copper (also soft) is turned into bronze (harder) by alloying it with tin. But why should the addition of atoms like carbon and tin make metals like iron and copper harder? Eberhart explains that the characteristics of materials (hardness, toughness, etc) result from the nature of the chemical bonds between atoms and the crystalline structure of the material. Metals are crystal conglomerates, with the various crystal grains oriented at different angles. Bending happens when planes of atoms slide past each other. When this happens dislocations in the crystals migrate. But these migrating dislocations are blocked at crystal boundaries because the planes of atoms are not aligned. Instead, the dislocations pile up at the boundaries, and when this happens the

Excellent Read

I bought this book because it appeared to be aimed at showcasing the field of Fracture Mechanics to the lay person - certainly a daunting task in view of the depth of knowledge normally required to understand 'why things break". I wanted to see how the author would approach such a difficult subject (and without any pictures!). To my pleasant surprise this book was much more than an attempt to do "technology transfer". Eberhart has written a semi-autobiographical text that immerses the reader in the author's metamorphosis from a young child wondering about breaking atoms in butter with his knife to a full-fledged academic professor and researcher who asks and answers "why", not "how" or "when", but "why" something broke or failed. The examples given range from understanding how glass shatters, how Correlle ware is not really unbreakable, to the tragedy of the Challenger accident and the need to listen to engineers when they become wary about a material or system entering an unknown environment. Eberhart does lament the "pecking order" of science and the politically correct way that research funding in North America is meted out, but this, in my view, is an accurate reflection of how the approach our government agencies and industries are taking to funding fundamental research is leading our society towards mediocrity, inhibiting development of revolutionary ideas that can transform society into better ways to do things much quicker. While a conservative approach can provide a safer and lower risk result, it also can significantly slow the rate at which new ideas bubble to the surface. Research must be risk-taking by its very nature. We require a better understanding of "why" things happen if we really want to develop the new innovations that improve our lives and those of others around the world in need of appropriate technological support. Furthermore, the established "pecking-order" in research prevents certain problems from being viewed in contexts that differ from the "norm". Cross disciplinary teams are needed if we wish to find innovation in the conventional. There is much food for thought in this well-written and enjoyable book.

A Well-Written Book on Materials Science

When I first browsed through this book, I hesitated buying it because, despite the fact that it's a science book, it contains no figures, no tables and no diagrams whatsoever. But since I had heard good comments about it, I bought it anyway. I'm very glad that I did! I learned a lot from it. The lack of figures is compensated for by the author's excellent ability to clearly describe what a figure would have illustrated. The analogies used are well selected and are most helpful; the reader gets a good idea of how materials behave under various conditions at the atomic/molecular level. On the negative side, however, there are a couple of problems. On page 130, it is pointed out that a moon loses angular velocity over time due to its collisions with particles in space such that a collision between the moon and the surface of the planet that it's orbiting will ultimately result. This is misleading because our moon is actually receding from the earth. The reason for this is well described in the book "The Big Splat" (by D. Mackenzie). Another problem is that on page 131, it is stated that the Newton (N) is a unit of momentum. This is incorrect. The Newton is a unit of force in the MKS system. Since momentum is mass multiplied by velocity, its units in the MKS system are kg-m/s. Since the Newton is a unit of force, its subunits are kg-m/s2. Thus momentum can be expressed in kg-m/s or in N-s. Anyway, despite these minor shortcomings, the book is excellent and, I believe, well worth the five stars that I have given it. I heartily recommend it.

Thoroughly enjoyable

Not since "Surely Your Joking Mr. Feynman" have I so enjoyed a book. Part science, part politics, part history, part biography and autobiography, Eberhart takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride through the world of technology and the development of a new scientific discipline. Your ride begins two million years ago when our ancestors broke the first rock to make stone tools and ends sometime in the future when we can design materials that will break the way we want them to. An amazingly fun book.