Engineering the City: How Infrastructure Works, Projects and Principles for Beginners - Softcover

Panchyk, Richard; Levy, Matthys

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556524196 ISBN 13: 9781556524196

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2000

Synopsis

How does a city obtain water, gas, and electricity? Where do these services come from? How are they transported? The answer is infrastructure, or the inner, and sometimes invisible, workings of the city. Roads, railroads, bridges, telephone wires, and power lines are visible elements of the infrastructure; sewers, plumbing pipes, wires, tunnels, cables, and sometimes rails are usually buried underground or hidden behind walls. Engineering the City tells the fascinating story of infrastructure as it developed through history along with the growth of cities. Experiments, games, and construction diagrams show how these structures are built, how they work, and how they affect the environment of the city and the land outside it.

About this title

About the Author

Matthys Levy, an architectural engineer, is a principal of Weidlinger Associates, a structural engineering firm. He has won numerous awards, including the AIA Institute Honor Award. Richard Panchyk is the author of Archaeology for Kids, Franklin Delano Roosevelt for Kids, Galileo for Kids, Keys to American History, Our Supreme Court, and World War II for Kids.

Reviews

Gr. 6-12. Future engineers, math enthusiasts, and students seeking ideas for science projects will all be fascinated by this book, which is filled with engineering "projects and principles for beginners." Facts about dams and bridges segue into information about water transportation and irrigation, and eventually into a chapter that answers the question, "What happens when I flush the toilet?" Other sections deal with highways, railroads, electrical circuitry, and garbage disposal. Simple line drawings unobtrusively enhance descriptions in the text, and there are specific, step-by-step ideas for engineering experiments that usually require only simple household objects. Each chapter ends with a brief list of suggested further activities that encompass geography, writing, geometry, and even history. A source of both general information and activities that can be used across the curriculum. Roger Leslie
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Edition details

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556524196
• ISBN 13: 9781556524196
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 129