What is Mechanical Engineering?
Mechanical Engineering is an excellent general education for today's
technological world. MEs conceive, construct, test, and operate all
kinds of mechanical, thermal, and biological devices.
It requires a solid understanding of
core concepts including mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics and energy.
Mechanical engineers use these core principles to design and analyze motor
vehicles, aircraft, heating and cooling systems, watercraft, manufacturing
plants, industrial equipment and machinery, robotics, medical devices,
alternative energy solutions and more.
Subdisciplines
Mechanical Engineering may be
divided into a number of subdisciplines, which can include the following:
- Mechanics is the study of motion and forces producing motion.
- Kinematics is the study of the
motion of bodies or groups of bodies.
- Structural analysis is the branch of
mechanical engineering (and also civil engineering) devoted to examining why
and how objects fail.
- Thermodynamics is the study of
energy, its use and transformation through a system.
- Mechatronics technology combining electronics and mechanical engineering.. An example of
such a system would be an optical disc drive. Mechanical systems open and close
the drive, spin the disc and move the laser, while a laser reads the data on
the disc.
- Robotics is the application of
mechatronics in the creation of robots.
- Drafting is the means by which
mechanical engineers create instructions for manufacturing parts. A technical
drawing can be a computer model or hand-drawn schematic showing all the
dimensions necessary to manufacture a part, as well as assembly notes, a list
of required materials, and other pertinent information.