Portal:Engineering

Topics: Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology

Portals → Technology → Engineering

The Engineering Portal

Engineering is the application of science, technology, mathematics, art, and practical experience to the design and production of objects, tools or processes. Professional practitioners of engineering are called engineers. Engineers design and build aircraft (Aerospace), roads and buildings (Civil / Structural), computers and electronics (Electrical), machines and vehicles (Mechanical / manufacturing), medical devices (Biomedical), environmental systems (Environmental), agricultural equipment and processes (Agricultural), processing plants, chemicals and molecules (Chemical), new materials (Materials) and much, much more. Without engineering, the world would be a very different place.

More about Engineering...

Show new selections

edit

Selected article

The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later called Merlin following the company convention of naming its piston aero engines after birds of prey.

After several modifications, the first production variants of the PV-12 were completed in 1936. The first operational aircraft to enter service using the Merlin were the Fairey Battle, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. More Merlins were made for the four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber than for any other aircraft; however, the engine is most closely associated with the Spitfire, starting with the Spitfire's maiden flight in 1936. A series of rapidly applied developments, brought about by wartime needs, markedly improved the engine's performance and durability.

More selected articles...

Read more...

edit

Selected picture

Credit: Luigi Chiesa

A fractionating column or fractionation column is an essential item used in distillation of liquid mixtures so as to separate the mixture into its component parts, or fractions, based on the differences in volatilities. Fractionating columns are used in small scale laboratory distillations as well as for large-scale industrial distillations.

More selected pictures... Read more...

edit

Did you know

... that the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine was built in 1807?
... that any temperature difference will power a Stirling engine?
... that a Floppy Disk Controller is a special-purpose chip and associated circuitry that directs and controls reading from and writing to a computer's floppy disk drive?
... that a drillship is a maritime vessel that has been fitted with drilling apparatus?