Materials Science, Science & Math 

From the librarian:

J.E. Gordon's books, "Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down" (also in the SEABC library), and this one, "The New Science of Strong Materials", are excellent ways for engineers to develop their intuition for understanding the behaviours of structures and materials. In this book, Gordon walks through the basics of advanced materials topics: crack propagation in glasses and ceramics, cohesion, adhesives, composite materials, metallic dislocations, and timber and cellulose composites. Throughout, he uses stories from history, in conjunction with formulae and diagrams, to create a fun and compelling read that allows the reader to grasp complicated topics in material science. Finally, he reflects on the effect that materials have on societies, both good and bad, and how materials may be designed in the future to help shape societies in positive ways.

From the back of the book:

Why isn't wood weaker that it is? Why isn't steel stronger? Why does glass sometimes shatter and sometimes bend like spring? Why do ships break in half? What is a liquid...and is treacle one?

All these are questions about the nature of materials. All of them are vital to engineers but also fascinating as scientific problems. During the 250 years up to the 1920s and 1930s they had been answered largely by seeing how materials behaved in practice. But materials continued to do things that they 'ought' not to have done. Only in the last 40 years have these questions begun to be answered by a new approach.

Now, material scientists, of whom Professor Gordon is one, have started to look more deeply into the make-up of materials. They have found many surprises; above all, perhaps, that how a material behaves depends on how perfectly - or imperfectly - its atoms are arranged.

Using both SI and imperial units, Professor Gordon's account of material science is a demonstration of the sometimes curious and entertaining ways in which scientists isolate and solve problems.