History Literature / TheWayThingsWork

* [[HonourableElephant Honourable Mammoth]]: While generally dopey, the mammoths are usually portrayed as gentle creatures unless provoked. Played straight in one chapter, where a mammoth figures out the concept of screws on his own and uses it to save a princess.

* [[ElephantsAreScaredOfMice Mammoths Are Scared of Mice]]: If the mammoth story opening chapter on springs is anything to go by. Apparently it runs in the family.

* HatesBaths: All mammoths, apparently. The struggle to get one mammoth into a bath is used to introduce the concepts of friction and lubrication.

* Technophobia: Mammoth in ''The Last Mammoth'' is a downplayed version of this. He doesn’t ''hate'' or ''fear'' Bill’s technology, it’s just too complicated for him, and in the end he decides to have nothing to do with it.

* Technophobe: Mammoth in ''The Last Mammoth'' is a downplayed version of this. He doesn’t ''hate'' Bill’s technology, it’s just too complicated for him, and in the end he decides to have nothing to do with it.

** He also doubts that the familiar shape taken by a [BandageMummy bandaged mammoth]] could ever get off the ground.

* [Main/Balloonacy]: The unfortunate mammoth in the chapter on floating ends up the recipient of this when his rubber costume spontaneously inflates.

* Baloonacy: The unfortunate mammoth in the chapter on floating ends up the recipient of this when his rubber costume spontaneously inflates.

* Balloonacy: The unfortunate mammoth in the chapter on floating ends up the recipient of this when his rubber costume spontaneously inflates.

* Ballonacy: The unfortunate mammoth in the chapter on floating ends up the recipient of this when his rubber costume spontaneously inflates.

* Edutainment: The mammoth stories fall into this category, with the inventor’s anecdotes serving to illustrate mechanical principles in action.

* MetaphoricallyTrue: The inventor’s explanations for what he observes, while hampered by his limited understanding, do contain elements of truth which the book itself elaborates on.

** Mammoth’s ultimate attitude to digital technology in ''The Last Mammoth'' boils down to this - having struggled to comprehend it throughout, he resolves to have nothing to do with it.
* LastOfHisKind: Mammoth in ''The Last Mammoth'', who enterS Bills digital domain in the hope of companionship.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: The author finds it "ludicrous" when a colleague suggests he makes a mammoth-fan that is powered by a stream of water rather a stream of men jumping on to a mattress.

Spawned a TV series and was updated as ''The Way Things Work Now'' in 2016.

%% [[HonorableElephant Honorable Mammoth]]

!Tropes in ''The Way Things Work'':

* MundaneMadeAwesome: Many of the illustrations of giant machines invoke this. Special mention should be made of the illustration which introduces the "Harnessing The Elements" section of the book, depicting a host of angels working on the world's first whoopee cusion.

* SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology: Somehow, somebody in the land of the mammoths manages to build a working nuclear power plant.

'''''The Way Things Work''''' is a 1988 science book by David [=MacAulay=] with Neil Ardley, which explains [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the way things work]], from simple levers to computers, flight simulators and robots. The workings of machines are shown in cutaway illustrations, often depicting giant versions of machines operated by people moving about inside (or in some cases, by angels), while the principles behind them are often described through humorous stories involving woolly mammoths.

* [[HonorableElephant Honorable Mammoth]]

'''''The Way Things Work''''' is a 1988 science book by David [=MacAulay=] with Neil Ardley, which explains [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the way things work]], from simple levers to computers, flight simulators and robots. The workings of machines are shown in cutaway illustrations, often depicting giant versions of machines operated by people (or in some cases, angels), while the principles behind them are often described through humorous stories involving woolly mammoths.

* BlackHumor: The illustration for Nuclear Fallout is very much this, as well as MoodWhiplash.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: It's not clear when, or indeed where, the mammoth stories take place. They certainly seem to occur long after the real extinction of the mammoth, but the technology is wood-and-stone-based, and the people living with mammoths don't seem to use metals.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: It's not clear when, or indeed where, the mammoth stories take place. They certainly seem to occur long after the real extinction of the mammoth, but the technology is wood-and-stone-based, without the use of metals.

* SufficentlyAdvancedBambooTechnology: Somehow, somebody in the land of the mammoths manages to build a working nuclear power plant.

Tropes in ''The Way Things Work'':

* InertiaIsACruelMistress: And a mammoth has a lot of inertia. Especially one on a unicycle.