• Question: can scince help me with engernnering

    Asked by shoaib2011 to Adam, Geoff, Rob, Sheila, Suzie on 21 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Geoff McBride

      Geoff McBride answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Yes especially newton’s laws, kepler, Kirchhoff and many others

    • Photo: Adam Tuff

      Adam Tuff answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Science and engineering share a lot in common – for example when engineering or building anything you need to think carefully about if it’s strong enough for it’s uses (physics), what materials are useful (chemistry) and what might be a danger to us biologically out of the materials used (biology).

      However when we the scientists want something built, we need to tell the engineers what we want – they need to tell us what they can actually make, and they need to have an understanding of a lot of science – like melting points and properties of metals if they are forging something, or chemicals to use that will be safe. Science and Engineering both need each other!

    • Photo: Suzie Sheehy

      Suzie Sheehy answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Good question.

      When I started university I was doing two degrees – civil engineering and science, so hopefully I’m well placed to answer your question! I originally took physics at uni because I thought it would help me with the engineering, and it did! Where engineering courses usually just teach you something and get you to apply it, in physics I really felt I understood where it all came from and how it all worked on a deeper level. To me, that meant I was then in a better place to apply it!

      After 2 years I realised that I wanted to be the one finding out how things worked, and so went into physics and stopped doing engineering. Strangely, now, I find myself half way between the two – doing some quite fundamental physics but always knowing that I’m designing a machine which actually has to be built one day. I find that my engineering training has helped a lot with things like project management… so it certainly wasn’t a waste of time!

      Hope that helps, feel free to ask more questions 🙂

    • Photo: Sheila Kanani

      Sheila Kanani answered on 20 Mar 2011:

      Yes definitely. Engineering is a science…you need maths and physics to do engineering!

    • Photo: Robert Simpson

      Robert Simpson answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Science and engineering are totally intertwined. Each needs to other and some people are both scientists and engineers.

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