Engineering is a very extensive area where useful systems are created by using the laws of nature and laws of matter. So, the engineering approach is much more different from the scientific approach. In science, these laws of nature and laws of matter are discovered and served to humanity. In engineering, these laws of matter and nature are used as a tool to create useful systems for humanity.
For example, engineers are designing shock absorbers that are used in vehicles to obtain more comfort in driving and using. These shock absorbers are designed according to Newton’s laws of motion.
Modeling In Engineering
The only constant thing in nature is the change itself. These ‘changes’ create mobility and complexity in nature. So, to understand nature, we need to understand these ‘changes’. There can be lots of kinds of ‘parameters’ for these changes. For example, a bird can fly at the same altitude with a specific amount of wing swings. With the increasing wing swings, the bird can raise its altitude. Also with the decreasing wing swings, a bird will lose altitude. So, the altitude ‘change’ of the bird is dependent on the number of wing swings in a time period ‘parameter’.
If one wants to understand a dynamic and mobile system nature, they must show what kinds of changes happening in that system. And the affecting parameters must be understood to these changes. After all of these are understood, a mathematical model must be created to understand the whole system that is studied.
To understand these changes and the parameters that affect these changes, differential equations are used. For well-defined systems, all the changes their parameters are defined in differential equations. With the solution of these differential equations, a specific state of that system can be obtained. For example, by using the differential equation of the wing swing problem, you can see the speed of altitude gain of the bird with a specific amount of wing swings.
Engineers are generally deal with the solutions of these differential equations.
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An engineer must define the minimum rate of change in that system to obtain precise solutions. With the decreasing rate of change, the solution will be more accurate. But also, the problem will be very hard to solve because of the complexity.
An engineer must decide this complexity. They must make a trade-off between that complexity and accuracy. For different systems, engineers must define the required accuracy for different systems. For instance, when engineers are dealing with vibrational problems of different kinds of systems such as automobiles or other vehicles, they assume all the masses in that vehicle as simple shapes for much more simple modeling. With that simple modeling of a complex shaped vehicle, a required solution is obtained. So, engineers must make assumptions to obtain quick and accurate solutions.
Conclusion
So, the engineering approach can be summarized like above.
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