Why Things Break by Mark E. Eberhart, Harmony Books, $24, ISBN 1400047609 Reviewed by Wendy M. Grossman
MARK EBERHART was one weird kid. He became obsessed with why and how things break before he was 6 years old. At 9, he spent his birthday money on 100 ball bearings and some magnets to test his theories.
Why Things Break is framed by these kind of autobiographical details, as Eberhart steps through his career, using each stage as a jumping-off point for a wide-ranging discussion of this area of science. The story of the Challenger disaster and its cold O-rings may be familiar, but others are not, such as the fact that the Titanic would never have sunk, were it not for the low level of manganese and high level of sulphur in the steel of the hull that made it exceptionally brittle.
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Ultimately, what he chronicles is a century鈥檚 shift in thinking, from expecting things to break to expecting to be able to design things that will not. His book is fun and a great introduction to all sorts of basic principles. You may never have thought of cleaning your room as a way to explain the second law of thermodynamics, but the way Eberhart tells it, it makes sense.