Preface

PGK

RTB

WDK

GW, Union College, Schenectady, New York, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Engineers have made remarkable innovations during the twentieth century. The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) recently identified the top 20 engineering achievements of the twentieth century, achievements that “shaped a century and changed the world”:

1. Electrification—to supply our homes and businesses with electricity

2. Automobile—for leisure and commercial transportation

3. Airplane—for rapidly moving people and goods around the world

4. Water supply and distribution—to supply clean, germ-free water to every home

5. Electronics—to provide electronic control of machines and consumer products

6. Radio and television—for entertainment and commercial uses

7. Agricultural mechanization—to increase the efficiency of food production

8. Computers—a revolution in the way people work and communicate

9. Telephone—for rapid personal and commercial communication

10. Air conditioning and refrigeration—to increase the quality of life

11. Highways—to speed transportation of people and goods across the land

12. Spacecraft—to begin our exploration of limitless space

13. Internet—a cultural evolution of the way people interact

14. Imaging—to improve healthcare

15. Household appliances—to allow women to enter the workplace

16. Health technologies—to improve the quality of life

17. Petroleum and petrochemical technologies—to power transportation systems

18. Laser and fiber optics—to improve measurement and communication systems

19. Nuclear technologies—to tap a new natural energy source

20. High-performance materials—to create safer, lighter, and better products

However, engineering students are less interested in what was or what is than in what will be. Young men and women exploring engineering as a career are excited about the future—their future—and about the engineering challenges 10-20 years from now when they are in the spring and summer of their careers. In the words of the four-time Stanley Cup winner and Hockey Hall of Fame member Wayne Gretzky,

The National Academy of Engineering also proposed the following 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering in the twenty-first century. In our fourth edition of this text, we have chosen to highlight material that engages these topics because they represent the future of engineering creativity.

1. Make solar energy economical

2. Provide energy from fusion

3. Develop carbon sequestration methods

4. Manage the nitrogen cycle

5. Provide access to clean water

6. Restore and improve urban infrastructure

7. Advance health informatics

8. Engineer better medicines

9. Reverse-engineer the brain

10. Prevent nuclear terror

11. Secure cyberspace

12. Enhance virtual reality

13. Advance personalized learning

14. Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

The twenty-first century will be filled with many exciting challenges for engineers, architects, physicians, sociologists, and politicians. Figure 1 illustrates an enhanced set of future challenges as envisioned by Joseph Bordogna, deputy director and chief operating officer of the National Science Foundation.1

1 The Structure of This Text

The first and second editions of this text were organized around the theme of twenty-first century engineering based on the technologies to be found in a modern automobile because we thought that incoming students could identify with the subject of cars, but we were somewhat disappointed at the superficiality of that knowledge.2 Several of our reviewers thought the text appeared to be a text for automotive engineering, which was not our intention. For that reason, this fourth edition has been expanded and reorganized quite differently. This expansion has taken the fourth edition into new territory with new subjects such as industrial engineering and aeronautical engineering as well as deeper into nuclear engineering than was the third edition. Overall, the coverage of engineering specialties is now unusually broad so that the text gives the student the possibility to discover what appeals to them while still presented at an elementary level—and what does not.

No question but there is too much material to be completed in any one term or semester class. The text is 30 chapters long enough we consider to be sufficiently comprehensive to cover the modern world of engineering. In an ideal world, this is enough for students to choose in some detail which area of engineering is their forte. But realities of class sizes and professorial preferences will limit the areas to be taught.

Nor was it our intention to have students cover all of this book. Our conception is to give a basic introduction to many engineering methods, to apply principles and methods that have been learned in the first part of this book to areas of technology covered in one or more specialized chapters, and, finally, to present a design challenge to the students. Accordingly, this text is divided into three cohesive parts: Part 1, Lead-On; Part 2, Minds-On; and Part 3, Hands-On.

We tried to provide an exciting introduction to the engineering profession. Between its covers, you will find material on classical engineering fields as well as introductory material for emerging twenty-first century engineering fields.

■ Part 1, which we call Lead-On, emphasizes what we consider the fundamentals that thread through virtually all branches of engineering. There are just five chapters in Part 1: “What Engineers Do,” “Elements of Engineering Analysis,” “Force and Motion,” “Energy,” and “Engineering Economics.” Most chapters in Part 1 are organized around just one or two principles, have several worked examples, and include exercises with several levels of difficulty. Occasionally, answers are given to selected exercises to encourage students to work toward self-proficiency. Solutions are available online for instructors at the publisher’s Web site.
We recommend all the first five chapters for all first-year engineering courses.
These chapters describe how to organize and solve engineering problems. Spreadsheets are introduced early and repeatedly throughout the text. We include an eclectic number of engineering tools unexplored by most comparable texts. We favor the use of rigorously structured answers to problems that, if followed, not only contribute to a solution for engineering problems but also leave an audit trail that can be followed later, should the need arise. We include how to address engineering ethics problems using a matrix approach, the importance of units and dimensions, and the use of tabular methods for multifaceted problems.

■ Part 2, which we call Minds-On, covers introductory material explicitly from the following well-established engineering disciplines: aeronautical engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, materials engineering, mechanical engineering, and nuclear engineering. There is some minor overlap because some engineering fields do overlap. In addition, three more chapters are devoted to emerging engineering fields: bioengineering, electrochemical engineering, and “green” energy engineering. The topics covered in each chapter are kept to a level commiserate with the background of first-year students. Our recommendation is to select appropriate discipline-specific chapters. Roughly speaking, first-year students are able to absorb an amount about equal to Part 1 in Part 2, but clearly it’s up to the teaching faculty to cherry-pick which chapters best suit their specific needs. Instructors should expect to find shortcuts in methodology that might pain purists; nevertheless, we tried to be accurate as to...