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  • The Way Things Work: Newly Revised Edition: The Newly Revised Edition-From Levers to Lasers, Windmills to Wi-Fi, a Visual Guide to the World of Machin by David Macaulay book cover
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The Way Things Work: Newly Revised Edition: The Newly Revised Edition-From Levers to Lasers, Windmills to Wi-Fi, a Visual Guide to the World of Machin

by David Macaulay

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A visual guide to how machines work

$27.00 USD
$45.00 USD $27.00 USD
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Hardcover New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Bestseller

    A New York Times Bestseller

AlbakiReads Editorial

A visual guide to how machines work

David Macaulay connects everyday devices and large-scale technologies through the mechanical principles they share. The revised edition ranges from windmills and levers to Wi-Fi, touchscreens, and 3D printers, linking foundational ideas about machines with newer developments. Illustrations, a woolly mammoth guide, a closing survey of significant inventions, a glossary, and an index give the book several ways to explore its subject. The broad span—from familiar tools to complex systems—makes technology legible through the parts and principles behind it.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Teens and young adults interested in machinery, tools, and technology
  • Visual learners who want an illustrated introduction to how machines work
  • Readers interested in inventions and the connections between older and newer technologies

Themes

Mechanical principlesTechnology and inventionConnections between past and future technologies

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

As seen on CBS News Sunday Morning.

Explainer-in-Chief David Macaulay updates his worldwide bestseller to capture the latest developments in the technology that most impacts our lives. What possible link could there be between parking meters and meat grinders, jumbo jets and jackhammers, remote control and rockets, electric guitars and egg beaters? Macaulay explains them all!

Famously packed with information on the inner workings of everything from windmills to Wi-Fi, this extraordinary and humorous book both guides readers through the fundamental principles of machines and shows how the developments of the past are building blocks of the world of tomorrow. This sweepingly revised edition embraces recent technological developments, from touchscreens to 3D printers. Each scientific principle is brilliantly explained, with the help of a charming, if rather slow-witted, woolly mammoth.

An illustrated survey of significant inventions closes the book, along with a glossary of technical terms and an index.

A New York Times Bestseller

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