101 Things I Learned® in Engineering School

Decisions and assumptions made just days or weeks into a project—regarding end-user needs, scheduling, the size and shape of a building footprint, and so on—have the most significant impact on design, feasibility, and cost. As decisions are made later and later in the design process, their influence decreases.

A force, often called a “load,” exists external to and acts upon a body, and can cause it to change speed, direction, or shape. Examples of forces include water pressure on a submarine hull, snow loads on a bridge, and wind loads on the sides of a skyscraper. Stress is the “experience” of a body—its internal resistance to an external force acting o

Total load is transmitted to the building foundation, then to the earth. The load received by a given area of a footing cannot exceed the bearing capacity of the soil, or the footing will sink.

applied. A door, for example, may be opened by applying the necessary force a given distance from the hinge, or by applying twice the force at one-half the distance, or four times the force at one-fourth the distance. Force times distance is the same in all instances.

When struggling to analyze a complex problem, shift your point of view from that of outside observer to that of the thing you are analyzing. If you were that thing, what forces would you feel? What internal stresses would you experience? How would you have to react in order to remain stable and not twist, turn, deform, be pushed over, or be caused

remain stationary, move, or

Crack propagation in a material increases with the sharpness of the tip of the crack. Drilling a hole at the tip makes a crack less sharp and distributes stresses over a larger area and in more directions, discouraging the crack from lengthening. Rounding of corners in building products, machine parts, furniture, and even the windows of ships and a

Don’t get distracted by all the other possibilities such that you forget to do the one thing you must do. But don’t become so focused on the one thing that you don’t do as much as you can.

The integrity of their relationship will be maintained only if the system is designed to perform