Engineering Research Guide: Background Information

Profession devoted to designing, constructing, and operating the structures, machines, and other devices of industry and everyday life

Branch of engineering that is concerned with the construction of roads, bridges, airports, aqueducts, waterworks, tunnels, canals, irrigation works, and harbours.

Branch of physics concerned with motion and the forces that tend to cause it; it includes study of the mechanical properties of matter, such as density, elasticity, and viscosity.

In science and engineering, the time rate of doing work or delivering energy.

An amplifier is a device that increases the power of an electrical signal.

Capacitor or condenser, device for the storage of electric charge.

Combination of a cold anode and a heated cathode, or the semiconductor equivalent, which incorporates a p–n junction; see semiconductor diode.

In electronics, the production of an electromotive force (emf) in a circuit by a change of magnetic flux through the circuit or by relative motion of the circuit and the magnetic flux.

Electronic circuit built on a semiconductor substrate, usually one of single-crystal silicon.

Laser [acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation], device for the creation, amplification, and transmission of a narrow, intense beam of coherent light.

Branch of electronic technology devoted to the design and development of extremely small electronic devices that consume very little electric power.

Integrated circuit containing the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to interpret and execute instructions from a computer program

Device in which, by electromagnetic induction, an alternating current (AC) of one voltage is transformed to another voltage, without change of frequency.

A semiconductor device that has three or more electrodes, whose function is to act as a switch, amplifier or detector of electric current, eg in radio receivers, TV sets, etc.

When the world speaks about energy, invariably it speaks about energy supplies.

At the center of energy issues in the United States is the growing realization that in order to sustain this level of energy consumption, a transition away from fossil fuels to more reliable and sustainable sources is needed.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Fuel made from natural, renewable sources, such as new and used vegetable oils and animal fats, for use in a diesel engine.

The energy stored in the nucleus of an atom and released through fission, fusion, or radioactivity.

Renewable energy is the energy produced by using natural resources that will regenerate in time. Primary sources of renewable energy are water, geothermal heat, wind, and sunlight. The energy produced by using different organic materials, such as wood, agricultural rejects, forestry residues, and urban solid waste (called biomass) is also regarded as “renewable.”

Energy from sunlight is one of the world's most important natural resources. Fossil fuels and agriculture would be impossible without it. Solar power has been used for thousands of years, and the technology continues to evolve.

Harnessing of wind energy to produce power. Since the 1970s, advanced aerodynamic designs have been used to build wind turbines that generate electricity.

Type of internal-combustion engine invented by the German engineer Rudolf Diesel and patented by him in 1892.

One in which combustion of the fuel takes place in a confined space, producing expanding gases that are used directly to provide mechanical power.

The most commonly used source of power for motor vehicles.

Engine that uses the power of steam to produce useful work. The first successful steam engine was built in 1712 by English inventor Thomas Newcomen at Dudley, West Midlands.

Structure built across a river to hold back a body of water (called a reservoir) in order to prevent flooding, provide water for irrigation and storage, and provide hydroelectric power.

In electricity, machine used to change mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Electric cell in which the chemical energy from the oxidation of a gas fuel is converted directly to electrical energy in a continuous process (see oxidation and reduction). MORE

Rotary engine that uses a continuous stream of fluid (gas or liquid) to turn a shaft that can drive machinery.