Courses in Engineering Science

Abstract

IT is of interest to observe the variety of views which are current as to the way in which the science of engineering is to be taught, more especially as they are indicated in the text-books of the day. While engineering is, in one sense, merely a branch of applied physics, the training of the engineer must necessarily be conducted on lines fundamentally different from those on which the physicist is prepared for his life's work. Prof. Southwell has pointed out that the problems of the engineer are inexorable and are recognized by him as so. The physicist, barred from progress in one attempted path, is free to try another; the engineer must solve his problem as it is presented, and some solution he must have even though it may only be approximate. From this it clearly follows that the engineer must study his subjects from the practical point of view, and that he inclines not to draw fine distinctions between them but rather to regard them as parts of one whole. Such distinctions as are made are more for convenience than otherwise, and to him the main end is to be able to estimate the practical effect of all the influences which bear upon any work in hand.

(1) Mechanical Engineering Science

A Second Year Course. By Dr. Arthur Morley and Dr. Edward Hughes. Pp. xiv + 260. (London, New York and Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd., 1938.) 4s. 6d.

(2) Engineering Science

By H. B. Brown A. J. Bryant. Vol. 2: Heat and Heat Engines and Electrotechnics. Pp. x + 450. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1938.) 6s.

(3) Engineering Mechanics

Prof. Seibert Fairman Prof. Chester S. Cutshall. Pp. xi + 267. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1938.) 13s. 6d. net.