How Things Work: The Inside Story On How 150 Machines Work

by Steve Parker, Alex Pang (Illustrator)

Discover the inner workings of 150 machines, gadgets and vehicle, from a digital camera to a bucketwheel excavator. Detailed illustrations and labels reveal the technology behind key components, while photographs show machines in action.

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer of children's and adult's books. He has written more than 300 titles and contributed to or edited another 150.

Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in 1952, Parker attended Strodes College, Egham and gained a BSc First Class Honours in Zoology at the University of Wales, Bangor. He worked as an exhibition scientist at the Natural History Museum, and as editor and managing editor at Dorling Kindersley Publishers, and commissioning editor at medical periodical GP, before becoming a freelance writer in the late 1980s. He is a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Parker is based in Suffolk with his family.

Parker's writing career began with 10 early titles in Dorling Kindersley's multi-award-winning Eyewitness series, from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. He has since worked for more than a dozen children's book publishers and been shortlisted for, among others, the Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize, Times Educational Information Book of the Year, and Blue Peter Book Award.

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells us how things work. It tells you interesting things on how big heavy machinery work and how it can withstand the force of the heavy weights it lifts up. It explains how machines are built for speed and what type of motor they use and how streamlining helps it.