Design for strength and safety

By the end of this week you will be able to share the wry smile of engineers as they downplay their capabilities with this self-deprecating definition of structural engineering:

“Structural engineering is the art of moulding materials we don’t wholly understand, into shapes we can’t fully analyse, so as to withstand forces we can’t really assess, in such a way that the community at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.” …James E. Amrhein – Masonry Institute of America (Retired) LQEngineer (talk) 03:58, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Engineers’ immense capabilities are sneakily hidden within the innocuous phrase “in such a way”. You are going to learn something of that understated way. But how?

This brief video will explain.

Talking points

• What do you think James E. Amrhein had in mind when he wrote the above message?