Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Overall Picture — Plan View
- 2 The Overall Picture — Elevation
- 3 Special Cases
- 4 A Rogue of Variables
- 5 Journeys into Lilliput
- 6 Transformations and Translations
- 7 The Dictatorship of Time
- 8 Looking, Seeing and Believing
- 9 The Consortium
- 10 The Art of Conversation
- 11 Conclusions and Recommendations
- References and Notes
- Index
1 - The Overall Picture — Plan View
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Overall Picture — Plan View
- 2 The Overall Picture — Elevation
- 3 Special Cases
- 4 A Rogue of Variables
- 5 Journeys into Lilliput
- 6 Transformations and Translations
- 7 The Dictatorship of Time
- 8 Looking, Seeing and Believing
- 9 The Consortium
- 10 The Art of Conversation
- 11 Conclusions and Recommendations
- References and Notes
- Index
Summary
Gazing at this sprawling subject we must begin with the problem of where to begin. Just to parachute down into it at some familiar spot and wander busily about will mean missing more than we see and dodging difficult spots. Aristotle said ‘Those who wish to succeed must ask the right questions.’
Perhaps in this situation the right question is how to form an overall picture that includes all the variegated fields where research is essential as a foundation for engineering design.
This book is about something in particular, not about everything in general, and an overall picture should begin by showing us where the boundaries of the subject lie.
Elsewhere I have written ‘The Engineering Scientist and the Natural Scientist travel the same road but sometimes in opposite directions. The Engineer goes from the abstract to the concrete: other Scientists from the concrete to the abstract. The Astronomer takes most careful and exact measurements of a planet and then deduces its future position and movements in the form of abstract mathematical formulae. The Engineer's work is the converse of this. He invents with his imagination and then builds with his hands…’
In research for design the engineer and the scientist are combined into a single individual who does both jobs. He travels from one concrete reality to another via a horseshoe journey into the abstract, or, if you prefer it, from the real into the symbolic and out again into reality.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Science of Design , pp. 1 - 9Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1973