Second Review 'How Things Work' by Najwa Hanis

Dear brother, why are you torturing me? I know that I’m not knowledgeable enough so that’s why you feed me with this. All this information is too much for me to digest. Yes I have read all of it although I might forget what I read. If you ask me about something, I won’t really remember. I might have to reread and refer. My memory is not like a giant computer you know. But hey, I learned a lot! I do feel brighter than before. Thanks bro! *brofist*

The genre of this book is non-fiction and sub-genre is reference book. I would like to classify this book as an encyclopedia though. This book is quite heavy in term of content (you’ll know if you see it). Maybe because it’s too informative? You used to read the sort of books that are light or laid-back, now why the sudden change? Hence I can simply say that preferences change with age. Nevertheless, we both know how our family is. Mom and dad like to buy factual books as they are really great references. 

Anyway, How Things Work is technically a book that tells us about the inside story on how 150 machines work. What are those machines? They are divided by these categories:

·         Gadgets

o   e.g. calculator, scanner, video games console, home cinema,  etc

·         Cars, Trucks and Bikes

o   e.g. mountain bike, F1 racing car, 4WD off-roader, fire engine, etc

·         Emergency Vehicles

o   e.g. ambulance, offshore lifeboat, Search And Rescue helicopter, etc

·         Speed Machines

o   e.g. TGV bullet train, NASCAR stock car, Thrust SSC, etc

·         Military Machines

o   e.g. Tomahawk and Granit missiles, M2 Bradley IFV, M270 rocket launcher, etc

·         Giant Machines

o   e.g. bigfoot truck, backhoe loader, tractor, mobile crane, bulldozer, etc

·         Energy and Power

o   e.g. oil and gas platform, nuclear power station, tidal barrage, etc

·         Ships and Submarines

o   e.g. yacht, jet ski, racing catamaran, cruise liner, aircraft carrier, etc

·         Aircraft

o   e.g. hot-air balloon, Cessna 172 Skyhawk, Harrier jump jet, etc

·         Space Exploration

o   e.g. V-2 Rocket, Sputnik 1, Pioneer 11, Voyager 2, space shuttle, etc

If it’s not too much as 150 machines, I would have listed down all machines. This book is obviously comprehensive.

For a very theoretical book, black-and-white-texts-only always bore me to death but this book comes with colored graphics for every page that support the facts so I’m still alive. I find all the facts truly educational and they are depicted by great illustrations.

So you see, not only I know about the name of the components of a machine, but I also get to know how the components are interrelated such how component A works with component B and component C to produce output/movement X. That is the operation of the machines. I really like knowing how military machines operate. Since we are not in that field of making machines especially for war, so it feels good to know just for the sake of learning.

Moreover, I get to know about the physics, chemical or biology concept involved with the machine. It’s really insightful because not all of it I have learned in school. So that’s bonus. For example, sonar is mentioned in ships and submarines but what sonar actually is in this context? Because we know animals also are related with sonar. It’s from Sound Navigation And Ranging, detects nearby objects in water using sound waves. So these sound waves bounce off surfaces through the water and the ship’s computer will display how the seabed looks like especially in case there is any obstacle.

The technology changes over time. So does the machines. They evolve. I like the part for every machine where the histories that come with the machine are put down nicely. For some, we can see what changes, what went well, what went wrong and what can be improved. How valuable these takeaways are.

Another good point I like about this book is that, apart from educating on current working/mechanism of the machines, the author even predicts the future of the machines. For example, Virtual Reality (VR) equipment. As you may already (or not) know, VR systems feed information such as sights (vision), sounds (hearing) and movements (touch) to the human brain and trick it into believing the things are real. VR can be used for fun and entertainment such as acting, and for serious purposes such as training pilots to fly and surgeons to carry out medical operations.

In World War II (1939-1945) the Celestial Navigation Trainer, a massive machine at13.7 metres high could hold an entire bomber aircraft crew training for night-time missions.

Virtual surgery can be extended into tele-surgery/remote surgery where a surgeon in one place works a console that controls robot equipment operating on the patience in another place.

With all these abilities, the author predicted that more body senses can be stimulated for future VR including odors (smell). Tiny pellets of odors or the smell of smoke can be released from the headset for example. This is so true. Similarly like telephone/mobile phone. Don’t we anticipate receiving not just voice, image, video, but smells too? It would be so cool!

For me, there is no negative aspect about this book. Again on the positive side, it’s either answers your curiosity or enhances your curiosity. As the saying goes, the more you know, the more you don’t know. My brother also feels the same! That’s the reason he’s into this kind of books.