Mechanical engineers create and develop systems based on the principles of force, energy and motion. Mechanical engineers help design everything from athletic equipment, medical devices and personal computers to air conditioners, automobile engines and electric power plants. Virtually every aspect of modern life is touched by mechanical engineering--if a nonliving object in your environment moves or uses energy, a mechanical engineer was likely involved in its design or construction.
Mechanical engineering dates to ancient Greece and China, where mechanisms like screw pumps, clocks, and even differential gears were invented. Chain drives, crankshafts, and camshafts date to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Mechanical engineering improved as our understanding of physics expanded with Newton’s Laws of Motion and the invention of calculus.
Mechanical engineers use physical theory to understand “what happens” in the real world of forces, pressures, heat, and vibration, and how physical structures, mechanisms, and fluids react. Mechanical analysis lies at the heart of most technologies in engineering, especially in mechanics and structures.
Mechanisms, systems and devices range from waterwheels to robots and aircraft, from heart pumps to satellites to weapons to nanoscale machines. Since the advent of steam power, designing, building and testing has employed the majority of engineers and tinkerers as we progressed to internal combustion engines, efficient batteries and power plants for electrical systems, and nuclear power.
An important focus of mechanical engineering is the conversion of energy from one form to another (more useful) form. Energy is the capacity of a physical system to perform work. Forms of energy include heat, radiation, kinetic, electrical, chemical, nuclear, and gravitational. Energy comes from both renewable (solar, wind, hydrokinetic, geothermal and biomass) and non‐renewable sources (oil, natural gas, coal, and uranium).
Mechanical engineers use Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools to create models of devices and their parts before they are built. Nearly all physical products and tools are designed this way. Some are now produced by 3D printing.
Mechanical engineering dates to ancient Greece and China, where mechanisms like screw pumps, clocks, and even differential gears were invented. Chain drives, crankshafts, and camshafts date to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Mechanical engineering improved as our understanding of physics expanded with Newton’s Laws of Motion and the invention of calculus.
Mechanical engineers use physical theory to understand “what happens” in the real world of forces, pressures, heat, and vibration, and how physical structures, mechanisms, and fluids react. Mechanical analysis lies at the heart of most technologies in engineering, especially in mechanics and structures.
Mechanisms, systems and devices range from waterwheels to robots and aircraft, from heart pumps to satellites to weapons to nanoscale machines. Since the advent of steam power, designing, building and testing has employed the majority of engineers and tinkerers as we progressed to internal combustion engines, efficient batteries and power plants for electrical systems, and nuclear power.
An important focus of mechanical engineering is the conversion of energy from one form to another (more useful) form. Energy is the capacity of a physical system to perform work. Forms of energy include heat, radiation, kinetic, electrical, chemical, nuclear, and gravitational. Energy comes from both renewable (solar, wind, hydrokinetic, geothermal and biomass) and non‐renewable sources (oil, natural gas, coal, and uranium).
Mechanical engineers use Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools to create models of devices and their parts before they are built. Nearly all physical products and tools are designed this way. Some are now produced by 3D printing.
Sepios
Inspired by the cuttlefish, these students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology built a nautical robot that mimics the locomotion.
“The only four finned cuttlefish robot in the world, Sepios distances itself from classical nautical vehicles with its omnidirecitonality and high maneuverability. These qualities combined with its fishlike appearance and low disturbance are ideal for closing in on fish, making it the ideal device for marine life filming.” |