View source for The Way Things Work

{{short description|Children's book illustrated by David Macaulay}}
{{about|the 1988 book|the album|The Way Things Work (album)}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2015}}

{{Infobox book
| name = The Way Things Work
| title_orig = 
| translator =
| image = Way things work.jpg
| caption = Book cover for ''The Way Things Work''
| author = [[David Macaulay]]<br/>[[Neil Ardley]]
| illustrator = Macaulay
| cover_artist = 
| country = United States
| language = English
| series = 
| subject = 
| genre = Educational
| publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin]]
| release_date = 1988
| media_type =
| pages = 400
| isbn = 0-395-42857-2
| dewey= 600 19
| congress= T47 .M18 1988
| oclc= 17917341
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
'''''The Way Things Work''''' is a 1988 nonfiction book by [[David Macaulay]] with technical text by [[Neil Ardley]]. It is a whimsical introduction to everyday [[machine]]s and the scientific principles behind their operation, describing machines as simple as [[lever]]s and [[gear]]s and as complicated as [[radio telescope]]s and [[automatic transmission]]s. Every page consists primarily of one or more large diagrams describing the operation of the relevant machine. These diagrams are informative but playful, in that most show the machines operated, used upon, or represented by [[woolly mammoth]]s, and are accompanied by anecdotes from a mysterious inventor of the mammoths' (fictive) role in the operation. The book's concept was later developed into two short-lived animated [[The Way Things Work (TV series)|TV]] [[Cro (TV series)|shows]] (the former produced by [[Millimages]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.millimages.com/site/tv/prod.php?lang=en&tv_id=6 |title=Television - The Way Things Work |date=18 November 2008 |publisher=Millimages |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081118015449/http://www.millimages.com/site/tv/prod.php?lang=en&tv_id=6 |archivedate=18 November 2008 }}</ref> and distributed by [[Schlessinger Media]], and the latter produced by [[Sesame Workshop|Children's Television Workshop]] and [[Film Roman]]), a [[Dorling Kindersley]] interactive CD-ROM (including a spin-off pinball game, ''Pinball Science''), and a [[board game]]. A family "ride" involving [[animatronics]] and a [[3-D film]] based on the book was one of the original attractions at the [[San Francisco]] [[Metreon]], but closed in 2001.

==Revised editions==
A revised and updated version, ''The New Way Things Work'', released on October 26, 1998, contains additional text on the workings of computers and digital technology. A number of pages were dropped, among them a two-page demonstration of a mechanical coin-operated [[parking meter]] and the original descriptions of computing. The original's computing section included four pages explaining the workings and the distinctions between a calculator and a general-purpose computer, and four pages on binary arithmetic, logical AND and OR gates, and how these are assembled into a [[Adder (electronics)#Half adder|half adder]] and [[Adder (electronics)#Full adder|full adder]]; these were replaced with entirely new art and more detailed descriptions, with a longer story, 'The Last Mammoth', depicting a lonely mammoth invited to visit the 'Digital Domain' by its proprietor [[Bill Gates|Bill]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Macaulay |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EuLxDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA310 |title=The Way Things Work Now |date=2016-10-04 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-1-328-66310-8 |language=en}}</ref> which uses the mammoth's assistance and a humorous pumpkin-and-apple-based mechanical computer to create a video depiction of a community of mammoths. Like the previous version, a CD-ROM version was released.

A substantially revised edition, ''The Way Things Work Now'', was published in October 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Dorling Kindersley.

==Contents for ''The New Way Things Work''==
* Part One — '''The Mechanics of Movement''': ''[[Introduction (essay)|Introduction]]'', ''The [[Inclined Plane]]'', ''[[Lever]]s'', ''The [[Wheel]] and [[Axle]]'', ''[[Gears]] and [[Belt (mechanical)|Belts]]'', ''[[Cam (mechanism)|cam]]s and [[Crank (mechanism)|Cranks]]'', ''[[Pulleys]]'', ''[[Screws]]'', ''[[Wheel and axle|Rotating Wheels]]'', ''[[Spring (device)|Springs]]'', ''[[Friction]]''
* Part Two — '''Harnessing the Elements''': ''Introduction'', ''[[Buoyancy|Floating]]'', ''[[Flight|Flying]]'', ''Pressure Power'', ''Exploiting [[Heat]]'', ''[[Nuclear Power]]''
* Part Three — '''Working with Waves''': ''Introduction'', ''[[Light]] and Images'', ''[[Photography]]'', ''[[Printing]]'', ''[[Sound]] and [[Music]]'', ''[[Telecommunications]]''
* Part Four — '''Electricity and Automation''': ''Introduction'', ''[[Electricity]]'', ''[[Magnetism]]'', ''Sensors and Detectors''
* Part Five — '''The Digital Domain''': ''Making [[Binary digits|Bits]]'', ''Storing Bits'', ''Processing Bits'', ''Sending Bits'', ''Using Bits'', ''Epilogue''
* '''''Eureka!''''' — The Invention of Machines
With a glossary of technical terms and an index at the back of the book. While the individual sections and subsections are changed in ''The Way Things Work Now'', the structure and Table of Contents remain the same<!-- other than page numbers, which are superfluous here-->.

==Publishing history==
{{Incomplete list|date=February 2011}}
* [[Scholastic Corporation]], 1988. {{ISBN|0-590-42989-2}}.
* [[Houghton Mifflin]], 1988. {{ISBN|0-395-42857-2}}.
* [[Houghton Mifflin]], 1998. {{ISBN|0-395-93847-3}}.
* [[Dorling Kindersley]], 2004. {{ISBN|1-4053-0238-0}}.
* [[Dorling Kindersley]], 2016. {{ISBN|0-2412-8219-5}}.
* [[Houghton Mifflin]], 2016. {{ISBN|1-3286-6310-8}}.
* Clarion Books, 2023. {{ISBN|0-544-82438-5}}.

==References==
{{Portal |Children's literature}}
{{reflist}}

{{David Macaulay}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Way Things Work, The}}
[[Category:1988 children's books]]
[[Category:Children's non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Infographics]]
[[Category:Books about elephants]]
[[Category:Works about technology]]
[[Category:Houghton Mifflin books]]