The Simple Science of Flight: From Insects to Jumbo Jets (MIT Press)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.78 (506 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0262513137 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 216 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-05-02 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"This was a great little book when it came out in its original edition; this new version is even better, as it contains both Henk's homage to his favorite flying machine (Boeing 747) and explanations based on some of the unexpected results of recent experiments with bird flight (including a phenomenal gliding jackdaw). Duke Professor, Emeritus, Duke University . It yields even more of that satisfying 'now I understand what's happening' rather than the usual 'how brilliant those designers must be.' And I know of no book that derives such an awesome wealth of insight from such simple quantification. Read it, then watch the birds and planes, and then dip into it again and again."--Vaclav Smil, University of Manitoba, and author of "Global Catastrophes and Trends""One gets a fine sense
The new edition of this popular book has been thoroughly revised and much expanded. Swans and Boeings differ in numerous ways, but they follow the same aerodynamic principles. Tennekes draws on new evidence on bird migration, new wind-tunnel studies, and data on new airliners. In The Simple Science of Flight, Henk Tennekes investigates just how machines and creatures fly: what size wings they need, how much energy is required for their journeys, how they cross deserts and oceans, how they take of
C. Griffith said Good book, but you can't read it like a novel. Dr. Tennekes describes the relationships between speed, lift, drag, power, and wing aspect ratio as they affect the flight of (mainly fixed-wing) aircraft and birds in this short book, rich with algebra and graphs. Those reading it for pleasure rather than for professional or educational reasons should be advised that it is more to studied than read, as the author frequently does calculations using equations provided in previous chapters. I ended up writing down several of the equations on a separate sheet of paper in order. John Pardey said The subject is complicated. There is detailed knowledge in this book, of necessity that means formulae and definitions of force , power, energy etc but if you want an accessible way of leaning about the nature of birds and aircraft and the physics that make them so different and so similar this is a short and excellent volume to start.. This book explains a lot about birds and airliners. This is a very interesting book and I highly recommend it. It explains the science of flight primarily about birds and jet airliners. Don't think that the science of the flight of birds and of jet airliners is related? Yes they are, and this book explains why. Please see the reviews of his earlier book which this is an expansion of. I pretty much agree with those reviews which certainly apply to this expanded book.There is a certain minimum degree of knowledge about science and mathematics (algebra) that is helpful but not
Henk Tennekes is Director of Research Emeritus at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Emeritus Professor of Meteorology at Free University, Amsterdam, and Emeritus Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He is the coauthor of A First Course in Turbulence (MIT Press, 1972).