3. 2 Making capital and running costs commensurate 49 3. 3 Optimum speed of a tanker 50 3. 4 The optimisation of the sag:span ratio of a suspension bridge 52 3. 5 Optimisation with more than one degree of freedom: heat exchanger 55 3. 6 Putting a price on heat-exchanger performance 57 3. 7 Variation of costs with application 59 3. 8 Further aspects of heat-exchanger optimisation 59 3. 9 An elementary programming problem 60 3. 10 Classification of optimisation problems and methods of solution 62 3. 11 The design of rotating discs: an optimum structure 66 3. 12 Hubdesign 73 3. 13 Summary 73 Questions 73 Answers 74 4 Insight 4. 1 Introduction 76 4. 2 Rough calculations 76 4. 3 Optimisation of compressor shaft diameter 83 4. 4 The optimum virtual shaft: a digression 85 4. 5 Useful measures and concepts 87 4. 6 Bounds and limits 91 4. 7 Scale effects 94 4. 8 Dimensional analysis and scaling 98 4. 9 Proportion 99 100 4. 10 Change of viewpoint Questions 102 104 Answers 5 Matching 5. 1 Matching: the windlass 107 5. 2 An extended example of matching: ship propulsion 107 5. 3 Matching within a single machine III 5. 4 Further aspects of ship propulsion 112 5. 5 Specific speeds: degrees of freedom 113 5. 6 Matching of a spring to its task liS 5. 7 Matching in thermodynamic processes 117 5. 8 Two old cases of matching 121 5.

Despite the fact that the farmer spends more on machinery than anything else except the land and despite the fact that he spends more on tractors than on any other machine, there are few books on the choice and operation of tractors to fit modern farming conditions. Most of this book is about farming and how to fit tractors to the individual situation. Those sections are completely unbiased and Case are happy to sponsor such a book in the wider interests of sensible, more productive and safer use of tractors and machinery. Where the Company's views are expressed it is clearly stated as such. This is mainly in the area of design detail and then only for the sake of being concise and brief. The first part of the book is concerned with relating the needs of the individual farm to specific details of tractor performance. Later chapters deal with policy on size, numbers and replacement. This section is a major development specifically about tractors. It is developed from the author's work Farm Mechanisationfor Prl!fitwhich deals with machinery in the wider sense. Later chapters of this book are related to profes­ sionalism in operation, maintenance and care.

Books on engineering design, like designs them­ selves, are highly individual. In this one, the author emphasizes the importance of a visual approach to machine design and makes his point by including a large number of illustrations. He also stresses the need for clear objectives in all design work. Professor Leyer is an experienced designer and an inspiring teacher, and his book is based on his own lecture course in the subject. Throughout, he shows be the goal to which mathematics, mech­ design to anics and engineering drawing are the means. His book complements the usual range of engineering texts and can be read to advantage by students at any stage of their studies. In addition, he gives clear descriptive accounts of some important topics (such as stress concentration and the torsion of non­ circular sections) which are often omitted from textbooks because of their mathematical complexity. In controversial matters-the merits of the patent system, for example-Professor Leyer leaves us in no doubt as to his own views. In editing this translation I have used SI units for physical quantities and I urge readers to make their own calculations in this system whenevet they have the choice. It will be some years, however, before the familiar inch, foot and pound disappear alto­ gether and I have added the corresponding values in these units.

Automatic computing has undergone drastic changes since the pioneering days of the early Fifties, one of the most obvious being that today the majority of computer programs are no longer written in machine code but in some programming language like FORTRAN or ALGOL. However, as desirable as the time-saving achieved in this way may be, still a high proportion of the preparatory work must be attributed to activities such as error estimates, stability investigations and the like, and for these no programming aid whatsoever can be of help. In this respect, ALGOL, as an internationally standardized notation which avoids computer-oriented concepts, provides another advantage, not often mentioned, but one which was already the guiding principle at the very beginning of the programming language venture: indeed, a correct ALGOL program is the abstractum of a computing process for which the necessary analyses have already been performed. It is the very purpose of this Handbook to establish such abstract formulations of certain computing processes. Therefore, numerical methods given in this Hand­ book in the form of ALGOL procedures may be put to immediate use wherever ALGOL is known and understood; in fact, application of such a method reduces to little more than calling the corresponding procedure.

Problem oriented programming languages as they have developed over the last ten years essentially serve two purposes which somewhat crudely can be described by the terms man-man communication and man-machine communication, respectively. As a carrier of information between humans, the problem oriented programming language is designed to express the essence of an algorithm in a way which is un­ ambiguous and concise as well as independent of (and therefore meaning­ ful without any reference to) the changing details of computing machine­ ry. As a carrier of information from man to computer, the language permits the human programmer to express his computational needs in a compact way adapted to the general characteristics of computers, but freed from the burdening details of specific computer facilities. This presupposes the existence of algorithms, or programs, which permit the computer itself to transform efficiently programs written in the problem oriented language into machine programs. Thus the entire computing community profits from the work of the individual programmer. The primary purpose of the Handbook is to present a set of algorithms of broad utility from the domain of numerical mathematics written in the problem oriented language ALGOL 60. Therefore, volumes I a and I b are in a sense supplementary as they serve to introduce this language. Volume I a gives a description of the language proper and of its use for writing correct programs. Thus, volume I a primarily covers the aspect of man-man communication by means of ALGOL 60.

Empirical research often lacks theory. This book progressively works out a method of constructing models which can bridge the gap between empirical and theoretical research in the social sciences. This might improve the explanatory power of models. The issue is quite novel, and it benefited from a thorough examination of statistical and mathematical models, conceptual models, diagrams and maps, machines, computer simulations, and artificial neural networks. These modelling practices have been approached through different disciplines.

"The efficient utilization of energy, sustainable use of natural resources, and large-scale adoption of sustainable technologies is the key to a sustainable future. The Handbook of Sustainable Engineering provides tools that will help us achieve these goals".

Reinforcement learning is the learning of a mapping from situations to actions so as to maximize a scalar reward or reinforcement signal. The learner is not told which action to take, as in most forms of machine learning, but instead must discover which actions yield the highest reward by trying them. In the most interesting and challenging cases, actions may affect not only the immediate reward, but also the next situation, and through that all subsequent rewards. These two characteristics – trial-and-error search and delayed reward – are the most important distinguishing features of reinforcement learning.