University reading list: Engineering

A what’s what of Engineering need-to-know information.

To be an engineer you need to be hot in your maths and physics. But to win a place at Oxbridge you need more than that. Read these books to give yourself and head start against the competition.

1. Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air

This book, published in 2008, sets out with remarkable clarity the various pathways that exist for a world that is finally recognising the need to push towards a greener and more sustainable future. It’s about time! At the time of writing Britain had 90% of its energy needs to be fulfilled by fossil fuels and this simply cannot go on. But the question now is how do we work our way off this dependence… this book will tell you how. A must-read for Engineers, Geographers and anyone with any ounce of power in the world!

2. How do wings work

Tells you… well, I’m sure you can guess what it tells you. This isn’t a book but rather a succinct and interesting paper that lays out the facts and misconceptions around the concept of lift. The way we are often told about the lift is simplistic and not entirely the truth. This is a simple and yet effective analysis of pressure gradients that will open your eyes to the truth.

 3. The New Science of Strong Materials – or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor

Why isn't wood weaker than it is? Why isn't steel stronger? Why does glass sometimes shatter and sometimes bend like spring? Why do ships break in half? What is a liquid and is a treacle one?

All these are questions about the nature of materials. All of them are vital to engineers but also fascinating as scientific problems. During the 250 years up to the 1920s and 1930s they had been answered largely by seeing how materials behaved in practice. But materials continued to do things that they "ought" not to have done. Only in the last 40 years have these questions begun to be answered by a new approach. Material scientists have started to look more deeply into the make-up of materials. They have found many surprises; above all, perhaps, that how a material behaves depends on how perfectly - or imperfectly - its atoms are arranged. Using both SI and imperial units, Professor Gordon's account of material science is a demonstration of the sometimes curious and entertaining ways in which scientists isolate and solve problems.