nick on Nostr: Science and engineering are very closely related but it’s very important to not ...
Science and engineering are very closely related but it’s very important to not confuse the two
I’m a mechanical engineer (not a physicist!). What you quickly learn as a mechanical engineer is all of those nice physics equations you learn in school all come with asterisks
And after a few years of getting your ass handed to you what you realize is the art in engineering is learning the asterisks that allow you to properly wield the laws of physics
The physicists get to live in the nice theoretical world of thermodynamics while ME grad students toil on empirical critical reynolds number experiments.
I don’t think one is strictly better or more useful than the other, but I do think as a theme, engineers don’t get nearly enough credit for just making things work
In the end, what is of value is what we can use, and from my experience, new ideas aren’t very useful until they’ve had a shit ton of engineering poured in 😁
Which is why it’s important to see that a new idea or theory is the start, not the end of something. Testing, iteration, and time are what make things real and useful for real people.
I’m a mechanical engineer (not a physicist!). What you quickly learn as a mechanical engineer is all of those nice physics equations you learn in school all come with asterisks
And after a few years of getting your ass handed to you what you realize is the art in engineering is learning the asterisks that allow you to properly wield the laws of physics
The physicists get to live in the nice theoretical world of thermodynamics while ME grad students toil on empirical critical reynolds number experiments.
I don’t think one is strictly better or more useful than the other, but I do think as a theme, engineers don’t get nearly enough credit for just making things work
In the end, what is of value is what we can use, and from my experience, new ideas aren’t very useful until they’ve had a shit ton of engineering poured in 😁
Which is why it’s important to see that a new idea or theory is the start, not the end of something. Testing, iteration, and time are what make things real and useful for real people.