Modern Technologies: Principles/Applications/Impacts

Chapter 1 Creating and Comprehending

Pyramids
        

Place: Egypt. Period: Twenty-eighth century BCE. TwentyRuler: Pharaoh Zoser. First Structure: Step Pyramid. Height: 204 feet Importance: First pyramid ever built at that time. Last Structure: Great Pyramid of Giza. First known engineer: Imhotep. Imhoteps achievement: Built the step pyramid.
2

Imhotep
        

No iron cutting tools. No wheeled vehicles. Only tools made of wood, copper and stone. Pioneers of hard rock construction. Used granite blocks from bedrock. Great organizational skills. Conditions of workers were inhumane. Instruments and mathematics was limited at that time. Learned from mistakes.
3

Evolution of Engineering
    

Second Pyramid: Pyramid at Meidum. Square base with sides sloping steeply upward at 55 degrees. After 300 feet, it collapsed. Third Pyramid: Bent Pyramid. Larger square base with sides sloping upward at 55 degrees till 333 feet and then sloping at 43 degrees further.

Evolution of Engineering
    

Next Pyramid: Red Pyramid. Retained most of the parameters of bent pyramid with even bigger base. Last Pyramid: Great Pyramid of Giza. 485 feet high with 55 degrees and 52 degrees slopes respectively. Contains more than 2 million stone blocks, each weighing more than 2 tons.

Step Pyramid

Pyramid at Meidum

Bent Pyramid

Red Pyramid

Great Pyramid of Giza

10

Engineering of Earlier Ages

    

Greek Temples, Roman Aqueducts and Great wall of china. Motivations and methods that turned ideas into artifacts. No power machinery and computer analysis. Similarities in habits of mind and approaches to problem solving. Hard to trace back the techniques of technological innovation.
11

Greek Temple

12

Roman Aqueducts

13

Great Wall of China

14

Engineering and Engineers

  

Villard de Honnecourt engineering illustrations. What is engineering? The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; for an intended function and safety to life and property.
15

Engineering and Engineers

    

What is an engineer? Engineer derived from Latin word ingeniatorem, meaning one who is ingenious in devising. At what point did they get distinguished from other professions? Relationships between engineering and science. Technology derived from Greek word techne meaning art or skill and logia meaning science.

16

Technology
    

Science folks were natural philosophers. Roman engineers used technology to build bridges, buildings and canals. China, India and Middle East contributed greatly to technologies of earlier times. Porcelain, metallurgy, canal transport, bridges and shipbuilding were Chinese technological findings. Design rules helped in improving strength of structures and efficiency of machines.
17

Science and Technology

    

Improvements in physical sciences in 19th and 20th centuries helped technology. Telegraph came from electrical experiments. Radio came from Maxwells equations and electroelectromagnetic wave theory. Laser came from atomic theory experiments. Scientists through experiments are helping in evolving newer technologies, which when applied in a particular field becomes engineering.
18

Science and Technology



  

Engineers today are immersed in science like electromagnetics, thermodynamics and solid mechanics. Computer simulation packages improve performance of scientific experiments. Computer technologists from mathematicians. Science deals with comprehending nature while engineering focuses on future.

19

Science and Engineering

      

Scientists perform experiments in laboratories. Engineers perform outdoors practically. Multiple stakeholders like clientele, corporate patrons, consumers, government etc. Also costs, performance and reliability. Cultural issues also make the task of engineers all the more challenging. What is to be made? How it is to be built? Negotiations with all parties concerned.
20

Science and Engineering

    

Market research. Examples: Washing machines, microwave ovens, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners etc. Company mission, history, expertise and commitment are also issues during manufacture. Conceptual design out of discussions, sketches should be converted into detailed drawings & specifications. Electrical engineers use CAD to draw circuitry that go on a chip
21

Science and Engineering

    

Structural engineers use CAD to manipulate beams and columns. Mechanical engineers use CAD to design boilers and steam engines. Aerospace engineers use CAD to simulate the various components of an airplane. Prototypes and simulations. Engineers are held accountable for their failures unlike doctors or lawyers or scientists.
22