The distinction that organises the whole subject is between comparing and measuring. A balance compares; a scale measures a force. Almost every difference between weighing devices follows from which one…
The useful way to read any station is to work out which of two plans it is, then look at how the roof is held up. Those two facts explain…
The design problem is not producing light. It is producing light that carries a specific identifiable message to somebody several miles away who needs to know exactly which coast they…
The useful question at any causeway is what it is crossing, because the answer determines whether it is always there, sometimes there, or being maintained against something actively trying to…
Source: Wikipedia
There is a category of historical decision that turns out correct for reasons nobody involved understood, and this is the clearest example in the history of public works.
A…
The wheel is frequently described as the great invention. The wheel-and-axle pair is the invention; a disc that rolls is obvious, and attaching it usefully is not. Here are twelve…