American - Author | February 6, 1942 -
I emphasize that virtually every engineering calculation is ultimately a failure calculation, because without a failure criterion against which to measure the calculated result, it is a meaningless number.
Henry Petroski
FailureEngineeringResultMeasure
I employ case studies of failure into my courses, emphasizing that they teach us much more than studies of success. It is not that success stories cannot serve as models of good design or as exemplars of creative engineering. They can do that, but they cannot teach us how close to failure they are.
SuccessFailureGoodCreativeDesign
Case studies of failure should be made a part of the vocabulary of every engineer so that he or she can recall or recite them when something in a new design or design process is suggestive of what went wrong in the case study.
FailureProcessDesignWrongNew
There's so much written about the Titanic, and it's hard to separate what's fact and what's fiction. My understanding is that the way the Titanic was designed, the emphasis was placed on surviving a head-on collision.
UnderstandingWayHardSurviving
I relax by looking at things and reading about things. Even the simplest thing can reveal a great deal about the world around us. It relaxes me greatly to sit back with my feet up and look around my study at the everyday things that surround me.
GreatMeRelaxWorldReadingFeet
We can't simply blame the engineers when things go wrong because, no matter how well they plan, things don't always go according to plan.
BlamePlanWrongEngineersGoWell
As long as there are things to wonder about, there are stories to be written about them. That makes me happy, because writing about things seems to be my thing.
HappyMeWritingLongWonderThings
The definition of 'safe' is not strictly an engineering term; it's a societal term. Does it mean absolutely no loss of life? Does it mean absolutely no contamination with radiation? What exactly does 'safe' mean?
LifeEngineeringLossMeanSafe
If I could go upstairs and write every day, I would be happy. I don't need recreation.
DayHappyBe HappyEvery DayGo
No design, no matter how common or seemingly insignificant, is without its adamant critics as well as its ardent admirers.
DesignMatterCriticsWithoutWell
Because every design must satisfy competing objectives, there necessarily has to be compromise among, if not the complete exclusion of, some of those objectives, in order to meet what are considered the more important of them.
CompromiseDesignImportantMeet
Because they are so humbled by their creations, engineers are naturally conservative in their expectations of technology. They know that the perfect system is the stuff of science fiction, not of engineering fact, and so everything must be treated with respect.
TechnologyScienceRespectPerfect
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