Engineering is the application of science to the needs of humanity. This is accomplished through knowledge, mathematics and practical experience applied to the design of useful objectss or processes. Professional practitioners of engineering are called engineers.
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2 The task of engineering 3 Etymology 4 Connections to other disciplines 5 Tools 6 Methods |
Engineering is concerned with the implementation of a solution to a practical problem. A scientist may ask "why?" and proceed to research the answer to the question. By contrast, engineers want to know how to solve a problem how to implement that solution.
Otherwise stated, scientists investigate phenomena that already exist, whereas engineers create what has never existed.
The terms "engineer" and "technologist" are not interchangeable; both describe different types of work and different professions. To illustrate: Once engineers have found a solution for the problem at hand, their work stops, and technologists begin the work of improving the solution. This process is dependent on various factors which vary with time. A solution which could be a practical application of a scientific fact does not satisfy a technologist. A technologist endeavours to bring it within the economic constraints so that the common person not only understands and marvels at science but also is able to enjoy it and loses fear of it by constant interaction.
Thomas A. Edison developed the phonograph -- a remarkable feat of engineering. Then, he directed his assistant (the technologist) to improve the device further by removing harmonics from the sound output.
The engineer must identify and understand the relevant constraints in order to produce a successful design. Constraints include available resources, physical or technical limitations, flexibility for future modifications and additions, and other factors such as requirements for cost, manufacturability, serviceability, and marketing and aesthetic, social, or ethic considerations. By understanding the constraints, engineers deduce specifications for the limits within which an object or system may be produced and operated. Engineering is therefore influenced by many considerations.
Engineers use their knowledge of science and mathematics, and appropriate experience, to find suitable solutions to a problem. Creating an appropriate mathematical model of a problem allows them to analyze it (perhaps, but exceptionally, definitively), and to test potential solutions. If multiple reasonable solutions exist, engineers evaluate the different design choices on their merits and choose the solution that best meets the requirements.
Engineers typically attempt to predict how well their designs will perform to their specifications prior to full-scale production. They use, among other things: prototypes, scale models, simulations, destructive testss, and stress testss. Testing ensures that products will perform as expected. Engineers as professionals take seriously their responsibility to produce designs that will perform as expected and will not cause unintended harm to the public at large. Engineers typically include a factor of safety in their designs to reduce the risk of unexpected failure.
Computers, and design software, play an increasingly important role. Using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, engineers are able to capture more information about their designs. The computer can automatically translate some models to instructions suitable for automatic machinery (e.g. CNC) to fabricate (part of) a design. The computer also allows increased reuse of previously developed designs by presenting an engineer with a library of predefined parts ready to be used in designs.
It is a myth that engineer originated to describe those who built engines. In fact, the words engine and engineer (as well as ingenious) developed in parallel from the Latin root ingeniosus, meaning 'skilled'. An engineer is thus a clever, practical, problem solver. The spelling of engineer was later influenced by back-formation from engine. The term later evolved to include all fields where the skills of application of the scientific method are used. In other languages like Arabic, the word for "engineering" also means "geometry".
Science attempts to explain newly observed and unexplained phenomena, often creating mathematical models of observed phenomena. Technology and engineering are attempts at practical application of knowledge (often from science). Scientists work on science; engineers work on technology. However, there is often an overlap between science and engineering. It is not uncommon for scientists to become involved in the practical application of their discoveries; thereby becoming, for the moment, engineers. Conversely, in the process of developing technology engineers sometimes find themselves exploring new phenomena, thus becoming, for the moment, scientists.
There are also close connections between the workings of engineers and artists; they are direct in some fields, for example, architecture and industrial design, and indirect in all. Artistic and engineering creativity may be fundamentally connected.
See also: list of engineering topics, Fields of engineering Compared to other professions
The task of engineering
Problem solving
Use of computers
Etymology
Connections to other disciplines