Engineering Essay Research Paper EngineeringEngineering is a

Engineering Essay, Research Paper

Engineering

Engineering is a fundamental field of research and creation. Engineering originated in Europe and has spread throughout the world ever since. Big contributions to engineering have not mainly come from we, The Americans, but from people across seas, such as the Europeans. This paper is to recognize these big contributions to engineering from around the world.

This country has imported theories from abroad and concentrated on its application to concrete and immediate problems, such as the case of the Atom bomb (Science and Public Policy). Americans have made less than what they are expected to contribute to engineering. Instead Americans have showed how to apply pure science to engineering. This is what Americans are well known for and have been well known for. The Americans applied pure science to come up with the Atom bomb. Europeans are credited with fundamental engineering advances. Nations depend upon one another for engineering advances (Engineering in History). In other words, nations depend on each other to come up with new engineering plans to solve hectic problems that surround the engineering world today. The best way to find these problem solvers is through history. History is the way to finding out exactly what it is to be an engineer. Engineers can accomplish what is expected of them because they are standing on the shoulders of men who have gone before them (Engineering in History).

Records show that history of engineering is showed as progressive and cumulative. Progress indicates advances that are built upon and include previous existing knowledge (Engineering in History). Civil engineers are busying themselves with the art of the practical application of scientific and empirical knowledge to the design and production or accomplishment of various sorts of constructive projects, machines and materials of use or value to man. (Atomic Energy for Military Purposes) Three important phases of engineering include: Application of Knowledge, Design and Production or Accomplishment, and Use or Value. To understand engineering to the fullest, these three elements must be understood. Progress in engineering results from the accumulation of knowledge. Whatever is produced or accomplished must be of some use or value to us. Values are not measured by how much money is taken to build something magnificent, but by faith or beauty of the building itself. For example, the ancient pyramids may have taken a lot of time and money, but they were used for great rulers when they entered eternal death.

Engineering is basically a trilogy which contains: pure science, applied science, engineering; economic theory, finance and engineering; and third, social relations, industrial relations, engineering. (Engineering in History) Most engineering problems include pure science and social problems. Engineers are paid by society to work on systems dealing with problems whose solutions are of interest to that society. These systems are grouped by (a) systems for material handling, including transformation of and conservation of raw and processed materials; (b) systems for energy handling, including its transformation, transmission, and control; and (c) systems for data on information handling, involving its collection, transmission, and processing. (Engineering in History) By going by these systems engineers go through various activities such as engineering research, design and development, construction, operation, and management.

History of engineering that has been recorded dates back to about 3,000 B.C. Men settled in the Tigris-Euphrates and Nile Valleys solved a lot of problems in different fields of engineering. Such fields include: structural, hydraulic, transportation, and metallurgical engineering. Before 3,000 B.C. big palaces were built for princes and big temples for priests. Increases in wealth, political power expansion, and trade growth led to growth in the cities. This growth led to increase in engineering and knowledge. It also led to the construction of monumental tombs. Engineers solved transportation problems by learning how to build roads, bridges, and ships, which could travel great distances. Hydraulic engineering came into play when they placed open drains to remove surface water, and underground drains that kept building foundations from sinking into mud. Because food production was important, early engineers built levees, dams, reservoirs, and canals to prevent floods and to irrigate their crop. About 700 B.C. stone aqueducts were used to transport water from reservoirs to the cities.

Engineering came into being to solve new problems of a new society, but once engineering was established, there arose an interaction by which it in turn influenced the evolution of society. This state of affairs continues today and will continue to exist as long as civilization remains dynamic and maintains its evolutionary course. (Babylonian Problems) Babylonian engineers understood right triangles and computed areas of land. They also computed volumes of masonry, and cubic contents of an excavation for a canal. They solved a lot of types of simple algebraic equations and applied the principles directly to what they work on. Their base number was 60 instead of 10, which we use today to tell time and to measure angles. Babylonian engineers helped to build one of the Seven Wonders of the World,