Structures or Why things don’t fall down

Chapter 1 The structures in our lives — or how to communicate with engineers

Chapter 2 Why structures carry loads or the springiness of solids

Chapter 3 The invention of stress and strain — or Baron Cauchy and the decipherment of Young’s modulus

Chapter 4 Designing for safety — or can you really trust strength calculations?

Chapter 5 Strain energy and modern fracture mechanics — with a digression on bows, catapults and kangaroos

Chapter 6 Tension structures and pressure vessels — with some remarks on boilers, bats and Chinese junks

Chapter 7 Joints, fastenings and people — also about creep and chariot wheels

Chapter 9 Walls, arches and dams — or cloud-capp’d towers and the stability of masonry

Chapter 10 Something about bridges — or Saint Bénezèt and Saint Isambard

Chapter 11 The advantage of being a beam — with observations on roofs, trusses and masts

Chapter 12 The mysteries of shear and torsion — or Polaris and the bias-cut nightie

Chapter 13 The various ways of failing in compression — or sandwiches, skulls and Dr Euler

Chapter 14 The philosophy of design — or the shape, the weight and the cost

Chapter 15 A chapter of accidents — a study in sin, error and metal fatigue

Chapter 16 Efficiency and aesthetics — or the world we have to live in