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Home / Science, Engineering & Maths / Through Engineers' Eyes: Engineering Mechanics by Experiment, Analysis and Design / Through Engineers’ Eyes – final thoughts

Through Engineers’ Eyes – final thoughts

This short video tells how we thought your engineers' eyes might have developed over the course. Does it seem that way to you?
View transcript
9.4
SPEAKER 1: Well, that’s it. The course is nearly over.
12.8
SPEAKER 2: We hope you’ve enjoyed exploring engineering mechanics, discovering a way of thinking and developing new skills. We’ve covered a lot of ground with our experiments, analysis, and design.
26.5
SPEAKER 1: And, of course, we have highlighted the engineering mindset.
30.5
SPEAKER 2: In week one, we looked at what a load does to an elastic element. And we saw the difference between static and dynamic conditions.
40.1
SPEAKER 1: In week two, we used free-body diagrams to reveal forces. We saw how forces add and checked it out with force transducers.
49.4
SPEAKER 2: Equilibrium appeared. The design task highlighted engineering responsibility.
56.4
SPEAKER 1: In week three, we explored twisting effects.
60
SPEAKER 2: They introduce a new equilibrium equation.
63.8
SPEAKER 1: We saw how to draw FBDs for rigid bodies and used them with equilibrium to solve practical problems.
71.3
SPEAKER 2: It was a magic moment.
73.8
SPEAKER 1: In the rest of the course, we looked at the different types of loads we might need to include on our FBDs.
81.2
SPEAKER 2: In week four, it was gravity, weight, and where it acts. We found the centre of gravity. It is another application of moments.
92.3
SPEAKER 1: In week five, it was friction. Sometimes we want less friction. Sometimes we want more. We saw how a rough-and-ready theory is applied in practice.
104.2
SPEAKER 2: In week six, it was wind loads. And that introduced a beautiful equation. We applied the analysis to vehicles.
114.1
SPEAKER 1: To maintain steady motion of a vehicle, we must overcome drag from our three sources– hill climbing gravity, rolling resistance friction, and air resistance wind.
125.7
SPEAKER 2: And we saw how to find the power that a vehicle needs for a specified performance.
131.8
SPEAKER 1: In week seven, we started looking at dynamics, accelerations, but mostly that will be for another time.
139.4
SPEAKER 2: Now, whatever you choose to do in future, you will have begun to see the world through engineers’ eyes.
147.2
SPEAKER 1: Maybe you have been changed forever.

Congratulations on reaching the end of the course!

The concept wheel shows how the last four weeks fit together. The final short video reviews the whole seven weeks. The chances are that you have developed engineers’ eyes.

Wheel revealing the words Week 4 2-foce objects, equivalent force systems, locating centres of gravity, Week 5 basic model of dry friction, friction and FBDs, managing dry friction-enough/too much, Week 6 modelling rolling friction, modelling aerodynamic drag, work and power, Week 7 predicting projectile motion, understanding collisions, introducing dynamics-accelerations Week 7 concept wheel (Click to expand)

This is a wrap up week combined with a look forward to what you could study next.

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learning?

This content is taken from
UNSW Sydney online course,

Through Engineers' Eyes: Engineering Mechanics by Experiment, Analysis and Design

View Course

In the experiment for this, the final week, accelerations were present. So we needed Newton’s second law – the heart of Dynamics – and we needed to understand motion. There’s so much more, but we have come to the end of our course, so deeper study will have to wait.

On the other hand, we’ve covered a lot of Statics; how to calculate unknown forces for a wide range of 2D statics conditions and a few dynamics ones too.

We hope that you have enjoyed learning about Engineering Mechanics through experiment, analysis and design, and that you are getting used to your ‘engineers’ eyes’.

We’ve enjoyed following your discussions and other contributions. Now we would like your overall impressions of the course in the comments section.

If this course has inspired you to consider further academic study in the field of Mechanical Engineering check out the UNSW Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering website for more details.

We wish you all the very best.

Ganga Prusty and Robin Ford

Want to keep learning?

This content is taken from UNSW Sydney online course
Through Engineers' Eyes: Engineering Mechanics by Experiment, Analysis and Design
View Course
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