Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

To solve their design problems engineers draw in a vast body of knowledge about how things work. This problem-solving knowledge may appear mundane or derivative from science, but in What Engineers Know and How They Know It Walter G. Vincenti shows how sophisticated and "internal" to engineering it really is-and how seemingly simple design requirements can have complex intellectual implications. Examining previously unstudied historical cases, Vincenti shows how engineering knowledge is obtained and, in the book's concluding chapters, presents a model to help explain the growth of such knowledge.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

An engrossing study by an outstanding aeronautical engineer and educator. Vincenti (Stanford University, emeritus) made his mark in the arcane field of high-speed aeronautics long before he turned his attention to some of the social and cultural aspects of engineering, becoming involved in Stanford's Program in Values, Technology, Science, and Society. In this book, he analyzes five aspects of aeronautical engineering, such as wing design, specifications for flying qualities of planes, control-volume analysis (thermodynamics), propellors, and flush riveting. All but one (on flying qualities) have appeared as scholarly articles; Vincenti adds to them by placing them in the context of how engineering knowledge proceeds. The final two chapters synthesize his theses and present a model to explain the growth of this understanding. Throughout the book, he consistently notes how the "history of engineering is. . .an aspect of intellectual history" (p. 52). Highly sophisticated in its approach and reasoning, this book will fascinate historians of technology, science, and philosophy as well as engineers and educators. Graduate level. -R. E. Bilstein, University of Houston--Clear Lake

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Walter Vincenti is professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He is an acknowledged authority on transonic, supersonic, and high-temperature gas flows, and on the history of technology, particularly the epistemology of engineering. Vincenti was instrumental in establishing an interdisciplinary program for engineering and nonengineering students at Stanford University. This program is devoted to historical, ethical, and social studies of technology and engineering. He is regarded by his colleagues as one of the wise men of engineering, a constant source of inspiration and support, and he is held in similar high regard by his peers around the world. His outlook on engineering and engineers is admirably demonstrated in his book, What Engineers Know and How They Know It (1990), "now the starting point for anyone trying to understand engineering, especially the character of engineering knowledge." (Jane Morley) For Vincenti, engineering design knowledge is generated through a varying process, sometimes scientific and theoretical in character, other times independent of science and rooted in experience and craft. Engineering knowledge and methods are thus partly indigenous, and their influence on society is enormous and must be exerted responsibly. In recent years, Vincenti has worked to further the history of engineering as an important subfield of the history of technology. Vincenti's awards include a Gold Medalist Pi-Tau-Sigma (1948), a Rockefeller Public Service Award (1956), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1963), and an Usher Prize (1984). (Bowker Author Biography)