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Cats' Paws and Catapults - Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People (Hardcover)
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Cats' Paws and Catapults - Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People (Hardcover)
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Nature and humans build their devices with the same earthly
materials and use them in the same air and water, pulled by the
same gravity. Why, then, do their designs diverge so sharply?
Humans, for instance, love right angles, while nature's angles are
rarely right and usually rounded. Our technology goes around on
wheels and on rotating pulleys, gears, shafts, and cams yet in
nature only the tiny propellers of bacteria spin as true wheels.
Our hinges turn because hard parts slide around each other, whereas
nature's hinges (a rabbit's ear, for example) more often swing by
bending flexible materials. In this marvelously surprising, witty
book, Steven Vogel compares these two mechanical worlds, introduces
the reader to his field of biomechanics, and explains how the nexus
of physical law, size, and convenience of construction determine
the designs of both people and nature. "This elegant comparison of
human and biological technology will forever change the way you
look at each." Michael LaBarbera, American Scientist"
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