• Question: when do you think/know engineering will get complicated and has it got complicated before?

    Asked by fahyda to Graham, Luke, Maksim, Ruth on 17 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Graham Wiggins

      Graham Wiggins answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      fahyda,
      Engineer has always been complicated – I know it may look like things were easy 100 yrs ago, but consider the wooden cart wheel…. could you make one now ? could your school make one ? and fit the iron band round the outside (iron tyre) ?
      Engineering has always closely followed the cutting edge of science, often pushing materials sciences hard – think of the meatl fatigue problems on the Commet jet liner ? it’s obvious now…
      Thinking of the future, engineering will go in 1 of 2 ways – either very well down the technology route, so lots of computing + code + dedicated prodcuts…. or… there will be a sudden change in society, and we’ll have to make simple things again.
      – go on, try and make a spoked wooden cart wheel. by hand, using hand tools. ( he types, knowing how hard it is , having tried – and failled – )
      then work out the forces on the rim as the wheel rotates at a set speed. and the temperature rise in the bearings. and the load rating for the wheel, so you don’t collapse the cart by overloading it ( I know, that’s Uni level engineering science, and a very old wheel !, but still valid, and a good example. )

    • Photo: Luke Fry

      Luke Fry answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      It always has been and always will be complicated. We deal with this, normally, by breaking down a big complicated problem into lots of smaller simpler ones. You don’t try to design an entire plane. You would take a spec of what the finished thing needs to be and then break it down into its smaller parts. These of course feed into and effect one another.
      We are constantly improving and expanding what is possible though which means we have more and more ways of solving these problems.

    • Photo: Ruth Gregory

      Ruth Gregory answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Engineering is a complicated field to be involved in. There are always complex problems that we come across. I think with computers and plant involved now, it becomes a minefield because you have to know so much and gain knowledge from so many different people on different aspects of a problem. It makes the job fun.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Totally agree with the other comments, it always has been and always will be. there are far too many unknowns in this world and problems always creep up whether it be something simple or something very complex. i doubt this will ever change.

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