Overview
- Fascinating book examining the characteristics of technological/engineering models
- Shows the role of mathematics and modelling as a bridging tool between disciplines
- Written by leading experts in the field
Part of the book series: Automation, Collaboration, & E-Services (ACES, volume 1)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
Table of contents (9 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
• the role of language: the models developed for engineering design have resulted in new ways of talking about technological systems
• communities of practice: related to the previous point, particular engineering communities have particular ways of sharing and developing knowledge
• graphical (re)presentation: engineers have developed many ways of reducing quite complex mathematical models to more simple representations
• reification: highly abstract mathematical models are turned into ‘objects’ that can be manipulated almost like components of a physical system
• machines: not only the currently ubiquitous digital computer, but also older analogue devices – slide rules, physical models, wind tunnels and other small-scale simulators, as well as mechanical, electrical and electronic analogue computers
• mathematics and modelling as a bridging tool between disciplines
This book studies primarily modelling in technological practice. It is worth noting that models of the type considered in the book are not always highly valued in formal engineering education at university level, which often takes an “applied science” approach close to that of the natural sciences (something that can result in disaffection on the part of students). Yet in an informal context, such as laboratories, industrial placements, and so on, a very different situation obtains. A number of chapters considers such epistemological aspects, as well as the status of different types of models within the engineering education community.
The book will be of interest topractising engineers and technologists; sociologists of science and technology; and historians and philosophers of science and mathematics. It will also be written in a way that will be accessible to non-specialists.
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Ways of Thinking, Ways of Seeing
Book Subtitle: Mathematical and other Modelling in Engineering and Technology
Editors: Chris Bissell, Chris Dillon
Series Title: Automation, Collaboration, & E-Services
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25209-9
Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg
eBook Packages: Engineering, Engineering (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-642-25208-2Published: 04 February 2012
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-43042-8Published: 13 April 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-25209-9Published: 03 February 2012
Series ISSN: 2193-472X
Series E-ISSN: 2193-4738
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 234
Topics: Robotics and Automation, Mathematical and Computational Engineering, Systems Theory, Control