Who were the forerunners of modem mechanical, mining and metallurgical, and civil engineers?

Who was Imhotep?

How is engineering often defined?

On what kind of information were many of the early branches of engineering based?

How do the buildings that have survived from ancient times compare with those built by modern standards?

What is probably the oldest textbook about engineering?

How does civil engineering differ from military engineering? What is a classical example of a structure built for military purposes? Can you think of any modem examples?

What is a more appropriate definition of civil engineering? What does this definition include?

Why does civil engineering offer a particular challenge? What consequence does this have for civil engineers?

What has happened to scientific knowledge since the beginning of the modem age in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

What are two reasons for the rapid increase in scientific knowledge?

What began in the eighteenth century? Has this movement continued up to the present?

What have scientific research and the practical applications of its results given the civil engineer?

What are some of the recognized engineering specialties?

What are some of the subdivisions within the field of civil engineering?

What does a systems engineer do?

What is still another result of the increase in scientific knowledge?

Until the nineteenth century, what did engineering training consist of?

Why is an engineer's education never really finished?

How does a railroad locomotive engineer differ from a professional engineer?

What has the general public become aware of in the last ten years or so? What was the public attitude prior to this period?

What was the point of a recent news story about the Aswan High Dam? What have been some of the dam's undesirable effects?

What must an engineer consider in his or her work?

What should the engineer's definition of practical include?

Review

A. Fill in the spaces in these sentences with the correct terms.

Can be defined as the practical application of the findings of theoretical science.

A railroad locomotive engineer is a... rather than a member of a profession.

Law, medicine, and engineering are professions that require specialized education at the... level.

Engineering is concerned with structures and systems that are intended to be stationary.

Engineering ordinarily deals with temporary structures that are used in warfare.

Engineering deals with the flow and control of liquids, especially water.

Engineers help to provide cities and towns with clean and adequate supplies of water.

A... engineer might work on a dam, a bridge, or a skyscraper.

Engineering deals with sources of power and the machines that make use of them.

Engineers work with reactions among the elements, the basic natural substances.

... and... engineers work with the effects and processes that result from the behavior of tiny particles of matter called electrons.

... and... engineers are concerned with extracting metal ores from the earth and refining them.

Engineers deal with processes that result from the breakup of certain small particles of matter.

An... transports water over a long distance.

Gravity, the pull of the earth, is one of the forces that exert... on a structure.

Rivers transport and later deposit sand or arth, called... along with them.

The air, water, and natural life that surround us are known together as the....

B. below are some of the projects on which a present-day engineer might work. Indicate which branch of engineering (civil, mechanical, chemical, and so on) would be involved. Some of the projects may involve more than one kind of engineering; if so, indicate all of those that you think should be included.

A suspension bridge over a large body of water.

Finding a new alloy (mixture) of metals that would serve a special purpose.