John Bryant

How do you draw a straight line? How do you determine if a circle is really round? These may sound like simple or even trivial mathematical problems, but to an engineer the answers can mean the difference between success and failure. How Round Is Your Circle? invites readers to explore many of the same fundamental questions that working engineers deal with every day--it's challenging, hands-on, and fun. John Bryant and Chris Sangwin illustrate how physical models are created from abstract mathematical ones. Using elementary geometry and trigonometry, they guide readers through paper-and-pencil reconstructions of mathematical problems and show them how to construct actual physical models themselves--directions included. It's an effective and entertaining way to explain how applied mathematics and engineering work together to solve problems, everything from keeping a piston aligned in its cylinder to ensuring that automotive driveshafts rotate smoothly. Intriguingly, checking the roundness of a manufactured object is trickier than one might think. When does the width of a saw blade affect an engineer's calculations--or, for that matter, the width of a physical line? When does a measurement need to be exact and when will an approximation suffice? Bryant and Sangwin tackle questions like these and enliven their discussions with many fascinating highlights from engineering history. Generously illustrated, How Round Is Your Circle? reveals some of the hidden complexities in everyday things.

In the space of 24 hours in July 1908, dramatic events came to a climax at the first London Olympic Games. The marathon distance of 26 miles 385 yards set at that time has since been accepted worldwide and this thrilling account of heroism, ambition and scandal tells for the first time the story of three remarkable men whose destinies collided in the battles that overshadowed these Games. It is a tale that stretches from rural Italy to the battlefields of the Boer War; from Ellis Island to Broadway and beyond to explore the foundations of the modern sporting and marathon movements and celebrate the strength of the human spirit.

If you want to experience something, run a marathon' - Emil ZatopekThe London Marathon salutes 25 years of the London Marathon by exploring the incredible physical and mental challenge that lies at the very heart of marathon running.

The years 1953-54 marked the conquests of 2 unattainable peaks - Mt Everest and the Four Minute Mile. This is the story of the long quest for the 'Magic Mile', almost 200 years in the making. The methods the runners used, the secrets they uncovered, were passed through the generations, until the quest reached its climax on the 6th May 1954.

Systems Theory and Scientific Philosophy constitutes a totally new approach to philosophy, the philosophy of mind and the problems of artificial intelligence, and is based upon the pioneering work in cybernetics of W. Ross Ashby. While science is humanity's attempt to know how the world works and philosophy its attempt to know why, scientific philosophy is the application of scientific techniques to questions of philosophy.

John Bryant has assembled a unique collection of critical writings dealing with the life, art, and influence of Herman Melville. More than just a survey of his works, this book is an intellectual guide that comprises the learning and insight of twenty-five noted Melville scholars, as well as their suggestions for further research. In combining criticism and bibliography, each chapter assesses the critical debates that have emerged concerning Melville's thought and art. The Companion also examines Melville's life and influence on the world of books, modern thought, foreign cultures, and popular culture.