The New Way Things Work

The New Way Things Work
by David Macaulay

The New Way Things Work
List Price: $35.00
Our Price: $4.17
You Save: $30.83 (88%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.72 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: David Macaulay
Contributor: Neil Ardley
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-10-26
ISBN: 0395938473
Number of pages: 400
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Book Reviews of The New Way Things Work

Book Review: About What You'd Expect
Summary: 5 Stars

Obviously the intent of this book was not to show you exactly how everything in the world works in a step-by-step manner, but rather to give you a general idea of the inner workings of many different and important inventions. The descriptive explanations for inventions are a bit overdone in some places while others are a little lacking, but overall I'd say you're told enough without being flooded in confusing details. Very well done. The friendly cartoons are a plus as well, and the "Eureka!" section at the end is an outstanding resource. Highly recommended for anybody with any mechanical curiousity whatsoever.

Summary of The New Way Things Work

The information age is upon us, baffling us with thousands of complicated state-of-the-art technologies. To help make sense of the computer age, David Macaulay brings us The New Way Things Work. This completely updated and expanded edition describes twelve new machines and includes more than seventy new pages detailing the latest innovations. With an entirely new section that guides us through the complicated world of digital machinery, where masses of electronic information can be squeezed onto a single tiny microchip, this revised edition embraces all of the newest developments, from cars to watches. Each scientific principle is brilliantly explained--with the help of a charming, if rather slow-witted, woolly mammoth.
"Is it a fact--or have I dreamt it--that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?" If you, like Nathaniel Hawthorne, are kept up at night wondering about how things work--from electricity to can openers--then you and your favorite kids shouldn't be a moment longer without David Macaulay's The New Way Things Work. The award-winning author-illustrator--a former architect and junior high school teacher--is perfectly poised to be the Great Explainer of the whirrings and whizzings of the world of machines, a talent that landed the 1988 version of The Way Things Work on the New York Times bestsellers list for 50 weeks. Grouping machines together by the principles that govern their actions rather than by their uses, Macaulay helps us understand in a heavily visual, humorous, unerringly precise way what gadgets such as a toilet, a carburetor, and a fire extinguisher have in common.

The New Way Things Work boasts a richly illustrated 80-page section that wrenches us all (including the curious, bumbling wooly mammoth who ambles along with the reader) into the digital age of modems, digital cameras, compact disks, bits, and bytes. Readers can glory in gears in "The Mechanics of Movement," investigate flying in "Harnessing the Elements," demystify the sound of music in "Working with Waves," marvel at magnetism in "Electricity & Automation," and examine e-mail in "The Digital Domain." An illustrated survey of significant inventions closes the book, along with a glossary of technical terms, and an index. What possible link could there be between zippers and plows, dentist drills and windmills? Parking meters and meat grinders, jumbo jets and jackhammers, remote control and rockets, electric guitars and egg beaters? Macaulay demystifies them all. (All ages) --Karin Snelson

Staff Favorites Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in My Favorite Childrens Science Books
America In Space: NASA's First Fifty Years ImageAmerica In Space: NASA's First Fifty Years
by Steven Dick, Robert Jacobs, Constance Moore, Bertram Ulrich
Abrams Books; Published: 2007-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops: $50.00
Robot (DK Eyewitness Books) ImageRobot (DK Eyewitness Books)
by Roger Bridgman
DK CHILDREN; Published: 2004-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops: $15.99
Machines at Work ImageMachines at Work
by Byron Barton
HarperCollins; Published: 1987-09-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.07
Price in other shops: $17.99
The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth (Magic School Bus) ImageThe Magic School Bus Inside the Earth (Magic School Bus)
by Joanna Cole
SCHOLASTIC BOOKS (TRADE); Scholastic Press; Published: 1989-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.11
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor ImageThe Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor
by Joanna Cole
Scholastic; Scholastic Paperbacks; Published: 1994-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops: $5.99
The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses ImageThe Magic School Bus Explores the Senses
by Joanna Cole
Scholastic; Scholastic Paperbacks; Published: 2001-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body ImageThe Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body
by Joanna Cole
SCHOLASTIC BOOKS (TRADE); Scholastic Press; Published: 1990-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops: $5.99
The Magic School Bus Lost In The Solar System ImageThe Magic School Bus Lost In The Solar System
by Joanna Cole
Scholastic; Scholastic Press; Published: 1992-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops: $6.99
The New Way Things Work ImageThe New Way Things Work
by David Macaulay
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; Published: 1998-10-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.77
Price in other shops: $35.00
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Scholastic Classics) Image20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Scholastic Classics)
by Jules Verne
Children's Press(CT); Published: 2006-09; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: $25.50
Similar Books and other products
The Mysterious Benedict Society ImageThe Mysterious Benedict Society
by Trenton Lee Stewart
Little, Brown Young Readers; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book: Boil Ice, Float Water, Measure Gravity-Challenge the World Around You! (Everything Kids Series) ImageThe Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book: Boil Ice, Float Water, Measure Gravity-Challenge the World Around You! (Everything Kids Series)
by Tom Robinson
Adams Media; Published: 2001-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.19
Price in other shops: $7.95
Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction (Sandpiper) ImageCathedral: The Story of Its Construction (Sandpiper)
by David Macaulay
Sandpiper; Published: 1981-10-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.33
Price in other shops: $9.95
Pyramid ImagePyramid
by David Macaulay
Sandpiper; Published: 1982-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.75
Price in other shops: $9.95
Building Big ImageBuilding Big
by David Macaulay
Sandpiper; Published: 2004-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.56
Price in other shops: $12.95
City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction ImageCity: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction
by David Macaulay
Sandpiper; Published: 1983-10-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.37
Price in other shops: $9.95
Castle ImageCastle
by David Macaulay
Sandpiper; Published: 1982-10-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.26
Price in other shops: $9.95
The Way Science Works ImageThe Way Science Works
by Robin Kerrod, Dr. Sharon Ann Holgate
DK CHILDREN; Published: 2002-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.16
Price in other shops: $24.99
Underground ImageUnderground
by David Macaulay
Sandpiper; Published: 1983-03-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.76
Price in other shops: $9.95
The Way We Work ImageThe Way We Work
by David Macaulay
Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books; Published: 2008-10-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.69
Price in other shops: $35.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories