American Scientist

To the Editors:

Henry Petroski makes an absurd suggestion in his column “Can an Engineer Appreciate Art?” (Engineering, January–February) when he says that “having the delivery boy riding a rocket-propelled bicycle” would have helped him reach space. Clearly a standard, Earthly bicycle would not be able to sustain the G-forces or friction that would be experienced with attached rockets. I would have suspected a more robust and thorough examination from Petroski, not blatantly disregarding the constrictions of natural laws when making suggestions to artists to take more realistic considerations with their work.

Anton van der Ven
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada