There are 12 item(s) tagged with “engineering” on this site.
Other tags used by these items: construction, architecture, infrastructure, air-travel, vehicles, cars, military
“The difference between four-wheel drive (4WD) and all-wheel drive (AWD) can be a little vague. I read a lot of resources, and they waffle quite a bit. In general: All-Wheel Drive requires no driver input. There’s a computer in the car that just makes it work. The car usually drives two wheels, but…”
“This is another name for what we call ‘asphalt’ in the United States. It’s the very sticky component or petroleum. It occurs naturally. Most of it is used to construction and road-making, but it can be refined to form crude oil. The ‘oil sands’ of Alberta and North Dakota are naturally occuring…”
“In it’s strictest terms, this is simply a physical element that’s only connected to a large structure at one end, so the other end ‘hangs out in space.’ Architecturally, a cantilever is a building structure that protrudes into open space, such as a balcony. A great example is The Guthrie Theater…”
“Cement is the base aggregate. It’s limestone, silica, and some other things. It’s a very fine powder. Cement, when mixed with other things, makes concrete. You mix it with sand, rocks, and water. So, the sidewalk in front of your house is technically concrete , not cement. Cement is just one…”
“This book was okay. It’s not what I expected. It talks about infrastructure, but really from a systems and societal perspective. It talks about the ideas of sharing infrastructure, and how that infrastructure has played out in our society. It also goes deep into the effects on women and minorities,…”
“I normally find things to research by reading books. This time I read a book because I wanted to learn more about a thing I was researching. I was writing this entry: Types of Aircraft Engines . I wanted to know more about the differences between turboprops and turbofans. So I found this book, and…”
“This is a term from physics and engineering, so there are lots of very technical definitions (involving lots of math). I’m greatly simplifying here. This is when an object experiences load against one part of it, that’s not applied against another part of it. For instance, if a wall is fixed at its…”
“This is short for ‘tarmacadam,’ which differs slightly from macadam . Wikipedia defines it as: Tarmacadam is a road surfacing material made by combining crushed stone, sand, and tar […] It is a more durable and dust-free enhancement of simple compacted stone macadam surfaces… Vocabulary.com says:…”
“ This is the common land surveyors tool, where someone looks through an eyepiece at specific points to measure angles and determine land boundaries. ”
“This is an interesting book. It’s a collection of essays, really, about engineering, and specifically about engineering failures. I call it a ‘collection’ because there’s no narrative thread to any of it. All the chapters (‘essays’) seemed to be relatively disconnected, and I couldn’t really figure…”
