To be fair to my family and colleagues, I'm trying to focus my attention on my primary work obligations and can't answer new questions right now. From time to time, I'll post the answer to a question of particularly broad interest, but otherwise I have to take a break.

If you can't find a discussion of your question in the existing collection on this site, I'd suggest you take a look in How Everything Works. You should be able to find it in a local bookstore or library, although it's brand new (it was printed on April 4, 2006). You can probably find what you're looking for without buying it, though I'm naturally hoping that you'll like it enough to want a copy. At a "street price" of only $25, it's quite a book for the money. To help you see if it's worth look for, here are the book's Table of Contents and Index: