Talk:The Way Things Work

There was a book from around 1960 entitled "The way things work". I believe it was first published in German as spelling?~"Wie functunert das". In many ways it is similar to the later book, and uses cartoons (stick figures) to demonstrate certain principles. While presumably aimed at the novice, I would not say it is a children's book. I have to wonder if this book was the inspiration for the more recent one. If anyone else is familiar with this book, it might be helpful to have a disambiguation or a separate page. 152.163.101.6 06:26, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, the older version was referenced in the novel "Lucifer's Hammer" and I'd sure like to find a copy, because the newer version is aimed at children, not adults. Qwertyportne (talk) 18:43, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Neil Ardley
Why no mention of Neil Ardley in the article? According to the articles on Neil Ardley and David Macaulay, Ardley was the author and Macaulay the illustrator. Surely Ardley should be prominently mentioned in this article! Perhaps someone with access to the book can check the details. -Phoenixrod (talk) 08:05, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

--71.30.141.210 (talk) 16:44, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I have the book and it talks only a little about Ardley, it says "my gratitude, first and foremost, goes to Neil Ardley, who provided all the technical text and who shared his vast knowledge of the subject with tremendous patience and enthusiasm".


 * The copyright notice in the new edition credits both Macauley and Ardley for the text. It seems the concept and research and design of the book come from Macauley – he is the primary author. --- Robina Fox (talk) 05:56, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

Please clean the links
Several of the links on this page go directly to disambiguation pages. While there is nothing at all wrong with these, wouldn't it be appropriate if this page linked directly to the specific appropriate pages. A particular example is the link for "Floating". Somebody who wants to, but doesn't yet know how things work, would be hardpressed to select the correct disambiguated link. The correct wikipage for this link by the way is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy

207.219.82.109 (talk) 16:15, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

The Alpaca-Rule??
Ummmm... The Alpaca-Rule doesn't really seem to fit in with the article... and it isn't cited... TiCaudata (talk) 20:43, 9 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Right you are. I've removed the vandalism. -Phoenixrod (talk) 01:27, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

The New Way Things Work
Could someone upload the artwork for The New Way Things Work? 66.172.105.55 (talk) 19:48, 20 July 2011 (UTC)