the.com/engineering
Turning physics into stuff that doesn't kill you, mostly on purpose.
means The practical discipline of designing, building, and maintaining machines, structures, and systems by applying scientific and mathematical principles.
from From the older sense of 'engineer,' which traces back through Old French 'engigneor' to Latin 'ingenium' — meaning natural cleverness, talent, or wit (the same root that gives us 'ingenious'). An 'engine' was originally any product of that cleverness: a contrivance, a device, a war machine. So the earliest engineers were the people who built siege engines, and the word's deepest meaning is less about machinery than about applied ingenuity — turning brains into things.
- word origin
- From Latin ingenium, meaning cleverness or genius
- safety factor
- Engineers build things stronger than needed, fearing reality
- iron ring
- Canadian engineers wear rings forged from a collapsed bridge
- failure teacher
- Most engineering progress comes from spectacular disasters
- rome's roads
- Some Roman engineering still bears traffic today
panama canal — 51-mile waterway connecting atlantic and pacific, completed 1914, handles ~14,000 ships annually
three gorges dam — world's largest hydroelectric dam in china, 2,335 meters long, generates 22,500 mw
burj khalifa — 828-meter skyscraper in dubai, world's tallest building, completed 2010
golden gate bridge — 1.7-mile suspension bridge in san francisco, opened 1937, iconic red color