Engineering Principles in Everyday Life for Non-Engineers

Description

This book is about the role of some engineering principles in our everyday lives. Engineers study these principles and use them in the design and analysis of the products and systems with which they work. The same principles play basic and influential roles in our everyday lives as well. Whether the concept of entropy, the moments of inertia, the natural frequency, the Coriolis acceleration, or the electromotive force, the roles and effects of these phenomena are the same in a system designed by an engineer or created by nature. This shows that learning about these engineering concepts helps us to understand why certain things happen or behave the way they do, and that these concepts are not strange phenomena invented by individuals only for their own use, rather, they are part of our everyday physical and natural world, but are used to our benefit by the engineers and scientists. Learning about these principles might also help attract more and more qualified and interested high school and college students to the engineering fields. Each chapter of this book explains one of these principles through examples, discussions, and at times, simple equations. Prologue......Page 17 Introduction......Page 19 Is it Possible to Defy Entropy?......Page 23 Why Do We Get Older?......Page 24 The First Law......Page 25 The Second Law......Page 28 Hybrid Cars Anyone?......Page 30 Common Misconceptions......Page 37 Introduction......Page 41 System Response to External Forces at Different Frequencies......Page 44 Natural Frequency of Other Common Systems......Page 48 Pendulum......Page 49 Cantilevered Beams......Page 50 Applications and Examples......Page 52 Guitars, Pianos, and Other Stringed Instruments......Page 53 Tuning to a Radio or TV Channel......Page 60 Hearing......Page 67 Walking and Running, Hearts and Lungs......Page 71 Bibliography......Page 73 Introduction......Page 75 Vectors......Page 76 Vector Multiplication......Page 77 Acceleration......Page 80 Reference Frames......Page 82 Rotating Frames......Page 83 Coriolis Acceleration......Page 87 Inertial Reaction to Acceleration......Page 88 Air and Water Circulations (Convections) Due to Heat......Page 90 Coriolis Acceleration and Weather Systems......Page 93 Riding Bicycles......Page 99 Oscillating Fans......Page 102 Airplanes......Page 103 Movements of a Spacecraft in Space......Page 109 Introduction......Page 113 Refrigeration Cycle......Page 116 Spark-Ignition Power Cycle......Page 123 4-stroke Engines......Page 124 2-stroke Engines......Page 131 Thermodynamic Representation of the Spark-Ignition Power Cycle......Page 132 Compression-Ignition Diesel Engine Power Cycle......Page 136 Thermodynamic Representation of Compression-Ignition Power Cycle......Page 137 Power Generation......Page 139 Bibliography......Page 142 Introduction......Page 143 Second Moment of the Area (Area Moment of Inertia)......Page 144 Deflections of a Beam......Page 146 Parallel Axis Theorem......Page 152 Polar Moment of Inertia (Polar Moment of the Area)......Page 155 Strength of Materials: Stress, Strain, and Modulus of Elasticity......Page 159 Role of Moments of the Area in Stress Calculations......Page 164 Mass Moment of Inertia......Page 165 Introductory Terms: Voltage, Current, and Resistance......Page 173 Magnetic Fields......Page 175 Electromotive Force......Page 178 DC Motors......Page 180 AC Motors......Page 181 Stepper Motors......Page 184 Canstack Stepper Motors......Page 187 Hybrid Stepper Motors......Page 192 Transformers......Page 194 DC Generators......Page 199 Back-emf Issues in Motors and Transformers: Laminated Iron Cores......Page 200 Back-emf in DC Motors: Servomotors......Page 203 Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Motors......Page 204 Author's Biography......Page 209 Index......Page 211 Blank Page......Page 2