Excerpt from "Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking" by R. Buckminster Fuller in collaboration with E.J. Applewhite (Macmillan Publishing Company,1982.)


"109.01 Synergy alone explains metals increasing their strengths. All alloys are synergetic. Chrome-nickel-steel has an extraordinary total behavior. In fact, it is the high cohesive strength and structural stability of chrome-nickel-steel at enormous temperatures that has made possible the jet engine."

Another example of "synergy" used by R. Buckminster Fuller is that of salt or NaCl. One constituent element is a metal, the other a poisonous gas. The behavior together is wholly unpredictable from the behavior of the component parts - table salt.

A paradigm for designers and operators?


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Edgar Zapata, NASA Kennedy Space Center

Systems Engineering Office