Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Failure is central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation. Successful engineering is all about understanding… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Typically, highway bridges have about 50 years. But over in England, they have iron bridges approaching 250 years. In France, there are… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
I relax by looking at things and reading about things. Even the simplest thing can reveal a great deal about the world… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
As long as there are things to wonder about, there are stories to be written about them. That makes me happy, because… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
I'm a firm believer that no matter how small an object is, you can find interesting things out about it and its… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
I have always been fascinated by the way things work and how they came to take the form that they did. Writing… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
A common misconception about how things such as space shuttles come to be is that engineers simply apply the theories and equations… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
All conventional wisdom has an element of truth to it, but good design requires more than an element of truth - it requires an… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
It is really want, rather than need, that drives the process of technological evolution. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
A failed structure provides a counterexample to a hypothesis and shows us incontrovertibly what cannot be done, while a structure that stands without incident… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Everything we do is designed, whether we're producing a magazine, a website, or a bridge. Design is really the creative invention that designs everything. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
I employ case studies of failure into my courses, emphasizing that they teach us much more than studies of success. It is not that… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Whether or not science can be applied to that mental construct [i.e. the designed entity] is a matter of availability. If there is body… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Failures are much more dramatic than successes, and people like drama. I think this is why automobile races draw such crowds. People expect spectacular… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer hardware… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by things large and small. I wanted to know what made my watch… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
The space shuttle was designed, at least in part, to broaden our knowledge of the universe. To scientists, the vehicle was a tool; to… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Because they are so humbled by their creations, engineers are naturally conservative in their expectations of technology. They know that the perfect system is… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
![“Whether or not science can be applied to that mental construct [i.e. the designed entity] is a matter of availability. If there is body of scientific knowledge that can be applied, then it would be foolish not to exploit it. However, if there is none, it does not mean that the thing cannot be…” quote by Henry Petroski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/17d/henry-petroski-10198_availability_whether-or-not-science-can-be-applied-to_341822.jpg)
