Originally published: New York : St. Martin's Press, 1985. Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-244) and index.

Being human -- Falling down is part of growing up -- Lessons from play; lessons from life -- Engineering as hypothesis -- Success is foreseeing failure -- Design is getting from here to there -- Design as revision -- Accidents waiting to happen -- Safety in numbers -- When cracks become breakthroughs -- Of bus frames and knife blades -- Interlude: the success story of the Crystal Palace -- The ups and downs of bridges -- Forensic engineering and engineering fiction -- From slide rule to computer: forgetting how it used to be done -- Connoisseurs of chaos -- The limits of design -- Afterword. How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s--the collapse of the walkways at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel? What made the graceful and innovating Tacoma Narrows Bridge twist apart in a mild wind in 1940? How did an oversize waterlily inspire the magnificent Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes that Petroski examines in this book, a work that looks at our deepest notions of progress and perfection, tracing the fine connection between the quantifiable realm of science and the chaotic realities of everyday life.--From publisher description.