Engineers:)

[e-lie]

Whats the difference between mechanical and electrical engineering ?

 

[Nighthawk]

Frustrated virgin mechanical engineers can make their own sex-dolls. Electrical engineers can make it vibrate.

 

[ready123]

mechanical engineering deals with mechanics

electrical engineering deals with electricity

duh

 

[thehexman]

Mechanical engineering deals with the mechanics of a machine. This is a broad topic and covers everything including
a) how to calculate stress, tension, structural dynamics and life span of parts
b) learn about standard machine elements (bearings, gears, drive shafts)
c) production of said parts
d) structural analysis of machines to make new ones (product development)
e) material science (what materials are machines made out of, plastics, steels, other alloys, etc)
f) energy (technical thermodynamics, heat and substance transmission)
g) finite element calculation and simulation (calculating to see if sth will work w/o having to build the machine --> computer science)
h) aerodynamics
i) electrical engineering because almost all machines have circuits and rely on signal transmission technology for regulation and control of the machine (like the speedometer, thermostat, and signal lights in your car)

This is a small overview, and you can apply many things you learn toward other fields. One thing engineers can take as well is biomedical engineering, which deals with medical technology, for example designing hands and other body parts for people who are missing limbs. Biomechanics of the ear for example is another lecture offered in graduate courses.

 

[spider_007]

don't worry about it.
engineering is probably not your thing.

 

[synergy1]

don't worry about it.
engineering is probably not your thing.

what he said

 

[SmoothTalker]

As some others have already touched on..

While most engineering disciplines have some overlap as they are really all just applied science and math, mechanical focuses on machines, you know, cars, planes, motors, engines, gears, levers, etc.

Electrical deals with electricity, but specifically in some schools it is split up into electrical and computer engineering.

Electrical is along the lines of everything from power plants and transmission lines to control devices like elevator buttons. On the smaller end, it overlaps a lot with computer, which also does things like control devices and goes down to the very basics, the logic gates and binary brains of computing devices. Some schools don't really make a distinction.

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

Some schools offer electro-mechanical engineering degrees.

 

[spesmilitis]

mech- anything to do with structure and or movement
elec- anything to do with electricity.

 

[MooseGod]

Frustrated virgin mechanical engineers can make their own sex-dolls. Electrical engineers can make it vibrate.

LMAO!!!

 

[djtdot]

Some schools offer electro-mechanical engineering degrees.

I think they call it Mechatronics.

 

[e-lie]

The virgin trolls in here need to be banned but I guess that will never happen

 

[MCristo]

Anyone have experience in college as either an Aerospace Engineer or Mechanical Engineer?

What's the work load like?

 

[rimman]

Anyone have experience in college as either an Aerospace Engineer or Mechanical Engineer?

What's the work load like?

Well MCristo since you answered my tread ill give you my two cents

As a mechanical engineer you will have as much workload as you want. If you learn to say no there will be no problem. Stress and good products don't go together. Also i would say social skill is essential and with that the ability to get a hand on resources available. Just try to advance since an entry level mechanical engineer have a hard time changing company for instance.

All in all engineering in college is developing the ability to take in and process information.

 

[Latinoman]

Whats the difference between mechanical and electrical engineering ?

I did my undergraduate studies in engineering.

I did not want to write from scratch my definion, so I simply did a google search and I am copy pasting a definition I find can cover the definition accurately and briefly.


Mechanical Engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the application of principles of physics for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It requires a solid understanding of key concepts including mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics and energy. Mechanical engineers use these principles and others in the design and analysis of automobiles, aircraft, heating & cooling systems, watercraft, manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and machinery, medical devices and more.


Electrical engineering — sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering — is an engineering field that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical power supply. The field now covers a range of sub-studies including power, electronics, control systems, signal processing and telecommunications.

Electrical engineering may or may not encompass electronic engineering. Where a distinction is made, usually outside of the United States, electrical engineering is considered to deal with the problems associated with large-scale electrical systems such as power transmission and motor control, whereas electronic engineering deals with the study of small-scale electronic systems including computers and integrated circuits. Another way of looking at the distinction is that electrical engineers are usually concerned with using electricity to transmit energy, while electronic engineers are concerned with using electricity to transmit information.

 

[Latinoman]

Anyone have experience in college as either an Aerospace Engineer or Mechanical Engineer?

What's the work load like?

Don't waste your time with "aerospace engineering". You can find aerospace work as a mechanical engineer.

The work load? Let me tell you one thing...

First, you must make sure you go to a school with a good program. How can you determine that? The program must be approved by ABET. By the way...a university might have several engineering programs (e.g. electrical, industrial, chemical, mechanical, etc.) and ONLY one of them might be approved by ABET. So, you have to look at the individual programs...and not necessary at the entire school.

The work load? In an ABET credited one it is very tough. You have lot of math (e.g. calculus, differential equations, etc.) and physics (several physics and applied type such as kinematics, statics, etc). You also have lot of engineering courses as mechanical engineering typically has the "energy" (e.g. thermodanymics, heat transfer, etc.) type courses and the "mechanics" (e.g. machine design, structure, etc.) type of course. You must take them ALL. And of course the labs. Lot of labs.

Engineering such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc. are not the type you can sit an memorized the problems. You actually have to analyze them. It is more of an application of math and physics/chemistry. It is in essence a mathematician that applies physics/chemistry to solve problems or a physist/chemist that applies math.

 

[Latinoman]

By the way...engineering might be the only field in which your undergraduate studies is more important than your graduate (Masters). Furthermore, you don't really need a graduate degree as engineering you can actually take couple exams to become LICENSE (eg. Professional Engineer).

 

[SmoothTalker]

I only did one semester of engineering before deciding it wasn't for me, but my dad has a Master's in Mechanical Engineering and I have several friends that are currently at various stages in their engineering degrees.

The work load is very very intense. At my school, which has the most respected Math and Computer Science programs in the country, all engineers learn more math than math students in the first couple of years, and computer engineers know more programming than CS students after the first year. On top of all this, you have to take other hard courses like physics and chemistry, and possibly need to take more than a full course load each semester. You generally don't get too many elective courses either, so no chance of taking something easy to offset the hard stuff.

Unless you are brilliant, and I mean actually gifted, not just bright (everyone in the program will have been the smartest students in their high schools if it's a good school), you'll probably be able to scrape by, but IT WILL consume the vast majority of your time.

All I will say is, do not do it for the money or some other superficial reason. Unless you really enjoy this stuff (I didn't..) you will hate it.

On the other hand, as someone else mentioned, the education you get from it is top notch. I have heard of engineering grads going on to med school and finding it easier, and form my personal experience of switching out of engineering, even though my new program is still considered challenging, my average shot up 20 percent despite my effort going down 50.

I'm getting a bit rambly, so to sum it up, the work load is intense, but if you like it and can handle it, you will come out with a lot of useful knowledge. The same cannot be said for most liberal arts programs - I am taking some business courses as electives and so far 90% of it has been common sense.

 

[Ntwadumela]

exactly smoothtalker. im takin civil engineering which is probably the easiest of all. the civil classes aren't too bad, but man, those math and physics classes suck. the workload really sucks. i pay rent and have a part time job, and barely have any time with my girl or the boys. The boys talk **** because i dont kick it all day after work and smoke like snoop dog. I really would if i could, i mean i really miss that weed, but im already 21 and i want to be making a mans salary soon. My friends are a security guard, a cashier at home depot, a beer delivery salesman, a car wash employee, and a guy who works at toys R us. It pisses me off because all this yet im the loser....they rag on me all day for being a b*tch and p*ssying out when they want to smoke or drink on a wednesday. they have tried college, but really half assed and just thought it was like high school. take some classes, four years later and boom, you graduate. its totally different. Only two of us are going to college out of our friends, me in civil engineering and him in accounting.

it sucks, but if you really want it, you'll sacrifice for it. And yup, im doin it for the money. sure, sometimes its interesting but if i was studying something i dream about id be on my way to becoming a director. its the money and job availability. plus it sounds kinda nice to be designing freeways and buildings and bridges...sewers not so much... once you're done you're set. and oh yeah....i was one of the smartest kids all through k-12. i barely worked to get As sometimes. took all the smart kid classes. And here i am struggling to understand concepts. I see a lot of nerds in my classes..really nerdy immature kids who probably play WOW and work on gettin rid of that V-card...and half of them can barely understand stuff too. Oh yeah...i didn't get my first D or F untill college. so yeah..its tough.

 

[ready123]

I'm going for a Masters in Electrical Engineering right now, got a year left. All Engineering basically is, is mathematical modeling.

Taking some real world phenomena and understanding the mathematical equations that explain what happens. Practically EVERY engineering class you take does this. Whatever field you go into determines the math models that you will learn - mechanical, electrical, civil, etc.

Most real world models use more complex math than just algebra and arithmetic so you need to have a solid foundation in calculus, linear algebra, and probability/statistics or else you're gonna be lost. Learning the math is the hard part because it's time consuming, but once it's learned, it becomes easy. Most of the math is done by computers nowadays so expect to learn a lot of programming too.

So if you wanna be an engineer, ask yourself, do you think it's a cool skill to be able to look at some kind of physical phenomena and know the math that explains what's happening? Do you think it be cool to be able to use this knowledge to solve problems or design cool products?

reminds me of that one thread on here where some dude tried to derive an equation to explain attraction. He basically turned attraction into an optimization problem with Lagrange multipliers to deal with the constraint (this is Calculus 3 stuff). Very impractical and nerdy but I can appreciate what he was trying to do from an engineer's perspective