HMJ-Engineer's Blog
Hello, lone reader, and hello to all bots!
Nearing to the end of my engineer's career I have some thoughts which are perhaps worthy to share with cyber-world......
This is quite difficult to notice a turning point in history of any human activity , be it politics, art, or engineering. We are adapting creatures and treat present as obvious and normal, no matter how it looks. Only looking back many years we may discern substantial milestones from meaningless events.
However, I have anyhow the feeling that ,with regard to engineering - broadly understood- we all face rather radical change to all underlaying principles.
Let me take for example mechanical engineering, which is most familiar to me , and in particular- material stress&strain.
Calculating it somehow, roughly or exactly , was always basis for any engineering construction - from road or bridge to aircraft or elevator.
The client or buyer was always expecting from engineering designer, that the device he gets will not break , or at least not very soon. So, the poor engineer was trying to assess strength of material used, based on earlier experience, and usually gave some reserve to calculation , later known as safety factor. In other words , "safety" was one of first lessons he got in his study. Even designers of weapons were expected to produce designs which do not harm their users by premature damage .
Therefore, engineers of the past built very solid things - egyptian pyramids are the example of vast material excess considering the function, but they stay still , after 5 thousands years.
With time, we learned to save labour and matter , and make the safety factor narrower,or cut down to absolute minimum as in case of flying objects, where weight contradicts strength.
The learned and genial gentlemen as Hook, Huber, von Mises, produced beautiful equations helping generations of followers to assess when the material starts to break under stress.
So, whoever now gets into elevator, steps on the stairs, gets into the car, or eneters into any interaction with man-made objects, where his health or life depends on integrity of it - he may be sure some of these equations stays behind... Years and centuries of reliable construction, interrupted from time to time by a spectacular catastrophe, taught general public that they may sleep safely, because surrounding world is tamed, known and calculated.
Why we should not sleep so peacefully anymore , and why from now on - let me explain in following blogs......
