This article describes the concept of engineering science and its different principles. Engineering science consists of few principles on which nature is founded: the laws of mechanics, thermodynamics, and design because these principles lead us straight, not on a blind and crooked path of trial and error. These few principles unite the animate systems with the inanimate systems, which are much older on Earth and unite the ‘natural’ with the ‘artificial.’ The article also focuses on linking engineering with science and shows through numerous examples that engineering and science are one. The paper shows that science is a story, and the better story is the better science, and science with engineering is a much better story than science without engineering. The value of science is a lot subtler, and it is monumental. There have been several mechanical engineers whose works have had a significant impact on science that most academics think these men were physicists and not engineers.
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October 2011
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Stressing the Science of Engineering
Design, Theory, and Practice are Inherent in Our Species.
Adrian Bejan is the J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University. He can be reached at abejan@duke.edu.
Mechanical Engineering. Oct 2011, 133(10): 40-43 (4 pages)
Published Online: October 1, 2011
Citation
Bejan, A. (October 1, 2011). "Stressing the Science of Engineering." ASME. Mechanical Engineering. October 2011; 133(10): 40–43. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2011-OCT-3
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