Engineering

Engineering is the application of mathematics, empirical evidence and scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, innovate, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, tools, systems, components, materials, and

processes.

The discipline of engineering is extremely broad, and encompasses a range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied science, technology and types of application.

The term Engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning "cleverness" and ingeniare, meaning "to contrive, devise".

Definition

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; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation or safety to life and property

Histroy

Engineering has existed since ancient times as humans devised fundamental inventions such as the wedge, lever, wheel, and pulley. Each of these inventions is essentially consistent with the modern definition of engineering.

The term engineering deriving from the word engineer, which itself dates back to 1300, when an engine'er (literally, one who operates anengine) originally referred to "a constructor of military engines."^[4] In this context, now obsolete, an "engine" referred to a military machine,i.e., a mechanical contraption used in war (for example, a catapult). Notable examples of the obsolete usage which have survived to the present day are military engineering corps, e.g., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The word "engine" itself is of even older origin, ultimately deriving from the Latin ingenium (c. 1250), meaning "innate quality, especially mental power, hence a clever invention."^[5]

Later, as the design of civilian structures such as bridges and buildings matured as a technical discipline, the term civil engineering^[3]entered the lexicon as a way to distinguish between those specializing in the construction of such non-military projects and those involved in the older discipline of military engineering.