Chapter 1 – Engineering
What is Engineering? Definition, introduction and a brief history
What is engineering? Here is how it is defined in wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering
Engineering is the creative application of science, mathematical methods, and empirical evidence to the innovation, design, construction, and maintenance of structures, machines, materials, devices, systems, processes, and organizations. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied mathematics, applied science, and types of application. See glossary of engineering.
The term engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning “cleverness” and ingeniare, meaning “to contrive, devise”.[1]
Definition
The American Engineers’ Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET)[2] has defined “engineering” as:
The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property.[3][4]
History
Engineering has existed since ancient times, when humans devised inventions such as the wedge, lever, wheel and pulley.
The term engineering is derived from the word engineer, which itself dates back to 1390 when an engine’er (literally, one who operates an engine) referred to “a constructor of military engines.”[5] In this context, now obsolete, an “engine” referred to a military machine, i.e., a mechanical contraption used in war (for example, a catapult). Notable examples of the obsolete usage which have survived to the present day are military engineering corps, e.g., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The word “engine” itself is of even older origin, ultimately deriving from the Latin ingenium (c. 1250), meaning “innate quality, especially mental power, hence a clever invention.”[6]
Later, as the design of civilian structures, such as bridges and buildings, matured as a technical discipline, the term civil engineering[4] entered the lexicon as a way to distinguish between those specializing in the construction of such non-military projects and those involved in the discipline of military engineering.
Ancient era
The pyramids in Egypt, the Acropolis and the Parthenon in Greece, the Roman aqueducts, Via Appia and the Colosseum, Teotihuacán, the Great Wall of China, the Brihadeeswarar Temple of Thanjavur, among many others, stand as a testament to the ingenuity and skill of ancient civil and military engineers. Other monuments, no longer standing, such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Pharos of Alexandria were important engineering achievements of their time and were considered among th