Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to solve technical problems, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve systems. Modern engineering comprises many subfields which include designing and improving infrastructure, machinery, vehicles, electronics, materials, and energy systems.
The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied mathematics, applied science, and types of application. See glossary of engineering.
The term engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning "cleverness" and ingeniare, meaning "to contrive, devise".
The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET)[4] has defined "engineering" as:
Engineering has existed since ancient times, when humans devised inventions such as the wedge, lever, wheel and pulley, etc.
The term engineering is derived from the word engineer, which itself dates back to the 14th century when an engine'er (literally, one who builds or operates a siege engine) referred to "a constructor of military engines".[7] 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."[8]
Later, as the design of civilian structures, such as bridges and buildings, matured as a technical discipline, the term civil engineering[6] entered the lexicon as a way to distinguish between those specializing in the construction of such non-military projects and those involved in the discipline of military engineering.
The pyramids in ancient Egypt, ziggurats of Mesopotamia, the Acropolis and Parthenon in Greece, the Roman aqueducts, Via Appia and Colosseum, Teotihuacán, and the Brihadeeswarar Temple of Thanjavur, among many others, stand as a testament to the ingenuity and skill of ancient civil and military engineers. Other monuments, no longer standing, such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Pharos of Alexandria, were important engineering achievements of their time and were considered among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The six classic simple machines were known in the ancient Near East. The wedge and the inclined plane (ramp) were known since prehistoric times.[9] The wheel, along with the wheel and axle mechanism, was invented in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the 5th millennium BC.[10] The lever mechanism first appeared around 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where it was used in a simple balance scale,[11] and to move large objects in ancient Egyptian technology.[12] The lever was also used in the shadoof water-lifting device, the first crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia c. 3000 BC,[11] and then in ancient Egyptian technology c. 2000 BC.[13] The earliest evidence of pulleys date back to Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC,[14] and ancient Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty (1991–1802 BC).[15] The screw, the last of the simple machines to be invented,[16] first appeared in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period (911–609) BC.[14] The Egyptian pyramids were built using three of the six simple machines, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the lever, to create structures like the Great Pyramid of Giza.[17]
The earliest civil engineer known by name is Imhotep.[6] As one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djosèr, he probably designed and supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt around 2630–2611 BC.[18] The earliest practical water-powered machines, the water wheel and watermill, first appeared in the Persian Empire, in what are now Iraq and Iran, by the early 4th century BC.[19]
Kush developed the Sakia during the 4th century BC, which relied on animal power instead of human energy.[20]Hafirs were developed as a type of reservoir in Kush to store and contain water as well as boost irrigation.[21] Sappers were employed to build causeways during military campaigns.[22] Kushite ancestors built speos during the Bronze Age between 3700 and 3250 BC.[23]Bloomeries and blast furnaces were also created during the 7th centuries BC in Kush.[24][25][26][27]
Ancient Greece developed machines in both civilian and military domains. The Antikythera mechanism, an early known mechanical analog computer,[28][29] and the mechanical inventions of Archimedes, are examples of Greek mechanical engineering. Some of Archimedes' inventions, as well as the Antikythera mechanism, required sophisticated knowledge of differential gearing or epicyclic gearing, two key principles in machine theory that helped design the gear trains of the Industrial Revolution, and are widely used in fields such as robotics and automotive engineering.[30]
Ancient Chinese, Greek, Roman and Hunnic armies employed military machines and inventions such as artillery which was developed by the Greeks around the 4th century BC,[31] the trireme, the ballista and the catapult. In the Middle Ages, the trebuchet was developed.
The earliest practical wind-powered machines, the windmill and wind pump, first appeared in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age, in what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, by the 9th century AD.[32][33][34][35] The earliest practical steam-powered machine was a steam jack driven by a steam turbine, described in 1551 by Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf in Ottoman Egypt.[36][37]
The cotton gin was invented in India by the 6th century AD,[38] and the spinning wheel was invented in the Islamic world by the early 11th century,[39] both of which were fundamental to the growth of the cotton industry. The spinning wheel was also a precursor to the spinning jenny, which was a key development during the early Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.[40]
The earliest programmable machines were developed in the Muslim world. A music sequencer, a programmable musical instrument, was the earliest type of programmable machine. The first music sequencer was an automated flute player invented by the Banu Musa brothers, described in their Book of Ingenious Devices, in the 9th century.[41][42] In 1206, Al-Jazari invented programmable automata/robots. He described four automaton musicians, including drummers operated by a programmable drum machine, where they could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns.[43]