This textbook for engineering students provides an introduction to design for function, using many examples of manufactured artifacts and living organisms to demonstrate fundamental underlying principles. Nature has taken millions of years to evolve numerous solutions for many design problems. The author demonstrates that the same underlying design principles for man-made objects also apply to living organisms, and shows how common themes can be found in mechanisms such as knees and car suspensions, structures such as feathers and ships, and systems (...) such as horses and hydrofoils. The examples forcefully illustrate the importance of the basic design principles as related to materials, energy and information. The author also discusses the relation of aesthetic and functional design, the crucial relation of design to production in artifacts, and reproduction in organisms. The book concludes with a brief summary of the role and requirements of designers and inventors. (shrink)

A comprehensive introduction to formal logic, Logic and Philosophy: A Modern Introduction is a rigorous yet accessible text, appropriate for students encountering the subject for the first time. Abundant, carefully crafted exercise sets accompanied by a clear, engaging exposition build to an exploration of sentential logic, first-order predicate logic, the theory of descriptions, identity, relations, set theory, modal logic, and Aristotelian logic. And as its title suggests, Logic and Philosophy is devoted not only to logic but also to the philosophical (...) debates that led to the development of the field. Much new material has been added for the 13th edition. An introduction to set theory and its relationship to logic and mathematics, including philosophical issues, is now part of Chapter 13. Chapter 15 is an introduction to modal logic and Kripke semantics, concluding with a discussion of philosophical problems with any logical accommodation of modalities. Instructors who do not wish to present proof methods will find chapters on truth trees for both sentential and first-order logic, and a presentation of trees for modal logic. Special features of this text include presentations of the history of logic, alternatives to traditional methods of conditional and indirect proof, and a discussion of semantic problems with universal and existential instantiations. Throughout, the authors are sensitive to philosophical issues that arise from the relationship between ordinary language, symbolic logic, and justifications for the syntax and semantics of the various symbolic languages. Discussions range from the justification of the truth table for the sentential rendering of if... then statements to semantic and syntactic paradoxes, including some troubling paradoxes that arise in ordinary language (e.g., the so-called hangman or surprise quiz paradox). Logic and Philosophy includes ample material for a one-semester or two-semester course and provides a thorough preparation for more advanced logic courses. (shrink)

The jaw mechanism of cichlid fishes is an intricate apparatus with complex force transmission from muscles to environment. The proportions of this apparatus change considerably during growth mainly due to scale effects. In adult fishes, the proportions differ, corresponding with the type of preferred food. In such a complex mechanism, it is very hard to gain insight into the functional meaning of the differences in proportions, unless a biomechanical model is constructed, describing kinematics and force equilibria of the apparatus.Such a (...) model has been constructed and by means of perturbation analysis anatomical points could be selected of which the positions are very important for the function of biting. These hot spots need only small displacements in order to obtain an increase in biting force. By means of a newly developed mathematical technique, it was possible to move the anatomical points in very small steps towards more favourable positions for the function of biting. (shrink)

An introduction to the 19th Lochmühle conference on ‘Architecture in living structure’, organized by P. Dullemeijer, W.F. Gutmann and G.A. Zweers, held from March 15–17, 1984 in the Aussenstelle des Forschungsinstituts Senckenberg der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main.

This paper is one of several contributions in a series, illustrating the application of a specific deductive methodology to explain diversity of form. The methodology facilitates the explanation of feeding morphologies in various ducks as a transformation of the mallard's feeding design maximized for specific proportions of performance that are contributed by pecking and filter feeding mechanisms.The earlier described anatomy and formal analyses of the three mechanisms in the mallard served as the initial conditions used in simulation models. Four elements (...) of the feeding system were chosen that play a major role in all three mechanisms. For each element, the main parameter was selected: storage capacity of the rostral mouth cavity, transport capacity of the rostral mouth tube, storage capacity of the caudal mouth cavity and transport capacity of the caudal mouth tube. The boundary conditions for the simulation were determined from internal organismic constraints. The total food uptake of the mallard was regarded as the function to be maximized. This object function is the summation of the food uptake by one second of pecking and one second of filter feeding. The drinking mechanism was shown not to interfere, since that mechanism operates sufficiently whenever the pumping mechanism works properly. (shrink)

Classical temples in ancient Greece show two deterministic illusionistic principles of architecture, which govern their functional design: geometric proportionalism and a set of illusion-strengthening rules in the proportionalism's stochastic margin. Animal morphology, in its mechanistic-deductive revival, applies just one architectural principle, which is not always satisfactory. Whether a Greek Classical situation occurs in the architecture of living structure is to be investigated by extreme testing with deductive methods.Three deductive methods for explanation of living structure in animal morphology are proposed: the (...) parts, the compromise, and the transformation deduction. The methods are based upon the systems concept for an organism, the flow chart for a functionalistic picture, and the network chart for a structuralistic picture, whereas the optimal design serves as the architectural principle for living structure. These methods show clearly the high explanatory power of deductive methods in morphology, but they also make one open end most explicit: neutral issues do exist. (shrink)