the benefits that engineering has brought to the world
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“THE BENEFITS THAT ENGINEERING HAS BROUGHT TO THE WORLD”
Hazimi Bin Ismail1
1Student No.: 2007293606No. In Attendant List : 6
Group:EMD8M2ALecturer:Assoc. Prof. Ir Loo Huck Soo
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UiTM Shah Alam.
INTRODUCTION
Engineering itself is claimed by most of professions who apply science and
mathematics in their working life. Most of the people in the world need the engineers every
day, either they realize it or not. Almost everything we see, we have and we need, the
engineers are behind of those. It is confusing if the author does not define and explain what is
engineering and who is an engineer. Back to history, the word “engine”, came from the Latin
word ‘ingenium’, which means “innate quality, especially mental power hence a clever
invention” Then, the word ‘engineer’ came into human’s dictionary in order to appoint the
person who operates an engine, accurately engine’er. In modern life, an engineer is defined as
a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge,
mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. The readers should
not being confused between scientist and engineer. Like what Theodore von Kármán has
said, Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that has never been. In
easy words, the scientist is the people who study and discover the new things, but the people
who make them reality are the engineers. The scientists maybe get their name in the history
book, but the engineers are the hidden people in stupendously contributing to the world. The
engineering is commonly divided into four major disciplines, civil, mechanical, electrical and
chemical engineering. In every discipline, there are more minor or specialized engineering
fields that have been used in modern world. However, it is easier for the author to categorize
the major achievements and their big impact of engineering to the world with concern of
different major of engineering.
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BENEFITS OF ENGINEERING
During author’s childhood, the author had always played games with his father during
the free time. The game was simple, the author had to memorize the name of inventors and
their inventions, and the father would ask who the inventor for the asking invention is. The
author could answer most of the question until the father asked a tricky question. The
question was “who invented the wheel?”.The author cannot answer until now. There are too
many claims on the invention of wheel, some people will say the Mesopotamians were the
right inventor, and some people claim Egyptian invented it first and it also could be other
ancient civilization. The truth is, no one can prove evidently on it, but the benefit of the wheel
is huge until now. That ancient genius should be awarded Nobel Prize, or we can simply put
the Nobel medal on his or her tomb if that person can be recognized. Why the author tells this
story? The answer is simple; the author is trying to explain that the engineering’s applications
themselves were existed long before the term of “engineering” has been used. The name does
not matter, what the matter are the applications and their benefits. Since ancient civilization,
the humans used simple mechanical devices such as pulley, lever and wheel to help their
daily lives. More people advanced, more advance the technology and engineering were. Look
at the 7 Ancient Wonders; some people would like to appreciate from the art and culture
point of view, but as an engineer, the author look at them as the symbolic and iconic of
tremendous engineering achievement on that time. Some of the engineering mechanisms in
them are still mysterious pieces of work until now. Let’s take the pyramids in Egypt as an
example; those pyramids still remain as one of the glorious engineering achievements in
human history.
Figure 1: Pyramids in Egypt
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During the prime time of Islamic world, the engineering stepped further in providing
benefits to the humankind. Jabir Ibn Hayyan, a Muslim chemist introduced the experimental
method for chemistry, laboratory apparatus, and some chemical processes of distillation,
liquefaction, crystallization and filtration. There were other tones of engineering
achievements discovered during the peak of Islamic civilization, and the engineering
achievements were being continued by Renaissance era in Europe.
Figure 2: Illustration of Jabir Ibn Hayyan in his chemical laboratory.
The Renaissance era provided more engineering excitements as much as its benefits to
the world. The first electrical engineer, William Gilbert published more than 1600
publications of ‘De Magnete’, who was the first person to use the term “electricity”.
Leonardo Da Vinci, who was a painter, engineer, architect, anatomist, writer and many others
was claimed as the most influential figure during Renaissance time. His idea of to get flying
could sound crazy during his time, but only came into reality a few centuries after him. The
idea is converted into concept, the concept becomes mechanism, and mechanism makes thing
works. What the fascinating is, the engineers are the major part of this process. The idea of
get flying should not be realized if the engineers did not take their part in the process of
making idea into reality.
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Figure 3 : Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Helicopter’ conceptual design.
The civil engineering is known as the oldest engineering discipline in human history,
excluding military engineering. The society would not work without civil engineering.
Infrastructure supports human’s daily life – roads and harbors, railways and airports,
hospitals, sports stadiums and schools, access to drinking water and shelter from the weather.
Because it works, the people take it for granted. Only when parts of it fail, or are taken away,
only then the people will realize its value. Today, civilization relies more than ever on teams
of inventive people to design, build and maintain the sophisticated environment that
surrounds us. Long time ago, ancient civilizations showed that civil engineering is one of the
key elements of the peaceful, harmonic and advance society. Aqueducts in Greek, Rome and
some other advanced ancient cities provided a systematic water distribution, coliseum in
Roman Empire where it act as the sports and entertainment venue, The Great Wall of China,
highly sophisticated and the longest defend wall in human history, which was used to defend
from the enemy attacks, and much more. The length of Great Wall of China itself stretches up
to 8,851.8 km, and it is 1.3 times longer than the Nil River.
Figure 4: The Great Wall of China
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In modern era, numerous technologies have assisted in the advancement of civil
engineering, including high-tech machinery, selection of materials, test equipment, and other
sciences. One by one the iconic gigantic building has been built. The Empire State, Petronas
Twin Tower, Taipei 101, Burj Khalifa and more to come have been the tallest building in the
world in their prime time. Nowadays, some buildings may not purposely build for their
functions, but they are used as the icons of the powerful, rich and advanced countries.
However, notable humanity and beneficial infrastructures still have been developed. The
mega dams in providing clean, green and renewable electricity are still being built and
developed, such as Three Gorges Dam in China, Itaipu in Brazil and Paraguay, Grand Coulee
in United States and many other large dams in the world. The civil engineering’s
contributions to the world cannot be simply listed in several pages, because the achievements
and their benefits are too many. Any beneficial buildings and infrastructures, waste and
environment technology, geological researches and studies and many more are parts of civil
engineering practices.
Figure 5 : The Three Gorges Dam in China is the largest Hydropower in the world.
The Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles
of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance
of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage
of heat and mechanical power for the design, production, and operation
of machines and tools. This discipline of engineering may be founded later than civil
engineering in modern world, but actually it was being practiced even in early ancient
civilization. Pulley, lever, and wheel are the examples of mechanical engineering works that
were being used a long time ago. In ancient Greece, the works of Archimedes deeply
influenced mechanics of buoyancy and hydraulic mechanism and Heron of Alexandria is
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known as the first person who created the first steam engine. The medieval Chinese
horologist and engineer Su Song incorporated an escapement mechanism into
his astronomical clock tower two centuries before any escapement can be found in clocks of
medieval Europe, as well as the world's first known endless power-transmitting chain
drive.During the era of Islamic Golden Age, there were remarkable contributions
from Muslim inventors in the field of mechanical technology. Al-Jazari was one of them to
invent mechanical devices which now form the very basic of mechanisms, such as
the crankshaft and camshaft. Important breakthroughs in the foundations of mechanical
engineering occurred in England during the 17th century when Sir Isaac Newton both
formulated the three Newton's Laws of Motion and developed calculus. The mechanical
devices have been given many benefits to human kind since a long time ago, examples of the
devices are Noria which has been used to nourish their villages and crops with water,
windmill was used to extract energy from wind, and the watt engine was the key element in
promoting the mass production. In modern life, the transportation, energy generation, cooling
and heating equipments, manufacturing, foods and agriculture, and many more need the
mechanical engineers behind them. The land vehicles such as bicycle, cars, motorcycles,
busses and trucks are the most important key in transporting people. The study and
implementation of higher efficiency of these vehicles make the people commute faster, safer
and cheaper compared to early ages of the development. In easy words, any human-made
moving devices that give benefits to the human, all of them must be related to the mechanical
engineering works. Even the mechanical military equipment can give benefits to human kind,
also as much as its negative outcomes. It depends on peoples’ perspective of view to judge its
value.
Figure 6 : Memorial of 1817 Watt Steam Engine in Birmingham.
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Electrical engineering may not be popular as much as civil and mechanical
engineering during ancient civilization, but at least there is a discovery of 2000 years old
battery in Baghdad. It proved that there were studies on electrical things during the ancient
time even that electrical study did not sustain until the recent centuries. The interest of
electricity started in early of 17th century, and since then electrical studies advanced and
improved until now. The influential and notable figures such as Allesendro Volta, Michael
Faraday, George Ohm, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Heinrich Hertz and many more were
the people who contributed a lot in electrical development. The telegraph, telephone, bulb,
induction motor, and millions of other electrical and electronic devices have been developed
since then. The results and impact to the modern civilization are huge and too much to be
listed here. The easiest and closest benefit of electrical engineering is the computer, which the
author used to type this article. In computer itself, there are too many electrical and electronic
components operate and combine simultaneously to form a complete computer. Nowadays,
Figure 7: Ancient electric cell discovered in Baghdad.
it is difficult to avoid electrical devices and even when people are sleeping they still need
electricity and electrical devices. The dependency of people to the electrical and electronic
devices is too much and it becomes a concern if someday the electricity cannot be generated
as much as demand of human needs. However, that issue is not a big problem if to be
compared with the advantages that electrical engineering brought to the world.
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Figure 8 : Handphone becomes necessity in peoples’ lives
Based on Anwser.com, chemical engineering basically is applied chemistry. It is the
branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction, and operation of machines
and plants that perform chemical reactions to solve practical problems or make useful
products. Like all engineers, chemical engineers use math, physics, and economics to solve
technical problems. The difference between chemical engineers and other types of engineers
is that they apply knowledge of chemistry in addition to other engineering disciplines.The
chemical engineers apply the expertise on inorganic and organic industrial chemicals,
ceramics, fuels and petrochemicals, agrochemicals (fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides),
plastics and elastomers, oleochemicals, explosives, detergents and detergent products (soap,
shampoo, cleaning fluids), fragrances and flavors, additives, dietary supplements and
pharmaceuticals. Generally, everything relates to the chemical process, there must be
chemical engineering involved in them. Perhaps the chemical engineering is the youngest
engineering discipline, but its importance and applications are the essential for current world.
The research and development of biomass is one of the global efforts in order to reduce
dependency on the fossil fuel. The medicine, water treatment, discovery of new material and
synthetic rubber are just a little bit of the chemical engineering’s’ contributions to the world.
More or less, the significance of chemical engineering keeps growing day by day, and who
knows one day only by eating 1 tablet medicine can cure all the deceases.
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Figure 9: Process engineers design, construct and operate plants
If the readers still have to clarify the benefits of engineering, it is just simple. Here,
the author is trying to tell his daily routines which rely on the engineering. The author sleeps
at 1 a.m in the morning, before get to sleep, the author will switch on the fan and set the
alarm. Behind those two routines, the civil engineer is needed in constructing the power
plant, mechanical engineer is needed in power plant in order to make the turbine operate
smoothly and also in fan and clock manufacturing, chemical engineers are needed in
processing the fuels, and finally the electrical engineers are important in transmitting the
electricity into the author’s house and also in the fan and clock manufacturing as mechanical
engineer does. By just 2 simple routines, there are many engineers involved in the processes
to make it happen. How about if the author tells one whole day, starts from bathing, eat
breakfast, go to class, have lunch, entertainment activities and so on. By telling those, the
author can write a book to explain the duties and involvements of engineers behind those
routines. Inarguably, engineers are needed every time and everywhere, and someday if all the
engineers suddenly disappear, the author can guarantee on that time the world is at chaos.
CONCLUSION
Realize it or not, the people depend on the engineering every day. The engineering
has been contributed to human and the world since ancient time. When people get advanced
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and intelligent, more technology and engineering have been developed to fulfill human’s
needs. The specific benefits of broad engineering disciplines are too much to be listed and it
proves that the people cannot live without it. The sustainable of human civilization relies on
the engineering and it has been proved by the history that the more advanced civilization can
outmatch other weaker civilization. More or less, the people will continue to be reliable on
engineering in the future either the people want it or not. The engineers may not be recorded
in the history book, but they are the truly guardian of the humankind.
REFERENCES
1. About.com : Chemistry (2011), March, [Online], Available: http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistrystudentfaqs/f/chemeng.htm.
2. Encyclopedia Britannica : Heron of Alexandria, [Online], Available: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/263417/Heron-of-Alexandria [29 March 2011].
3. Greatest Engineering Achievement of the 20th Century (2011), March, [Online], Available: http://www.greatachievements.org/.
4. Needham, J. (1986) Science and Civilization in China, Caves Books Ltd.
5. Siczkar, L. (2008) The Importance of Engineering to Society, 26 November, [Online], Available: http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/props/?module=displaystory&story_id=4009&format=html&edition_id=102 [28 March 2011].
6. Symons, A. (2010) The Importance of Engineering, 29 March, [Online], Available: http://sciencecampaign.org.uk/?p=894 [28 March 2011].
7. Wikipedia : Chemical Engineering (2011), March, [Online], Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_engineering.
8. Wikipedia : Civil Engineering (2011), March, [Online], Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering.
9. Wikipedia : Electrical Engineering (2011), March, [Online], Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_engineering.
10. Wikipedia : Engineering (2011), March, [Online], Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering.
11. Wikipedia : Mechanical Engineering (2011), March, [Online], Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_engineering#cite_note-3.
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