Manual

About Electricity (Engineering)
9. What is Engineering?
Q: What is Engineering? What do engineers do?
A: Engineering is the application of Science, Technology, and
Mathematics to make products that are useful to people.
Engineers are skillful in using their knowledge to make products.
For example, surge protectors transfer
current from the electrical wall outlet to the
electrical appliances plugged into it while
protecting the appliances from large spikes of
electricity which could damage them. Some
surge protectors have many sockets to plug
computers and TVs into them, while others
only have two. The design is an engineer’s job.
10. Is Engineering only about Electronics?
Q: Besides Electronics what else do Engineers do?
A: Engineers must design the products to be the most appealing
at the best price. Product appearance helps marketing sell
the product. Product performance is also important and engineers
are given specications by marketing to meet their requirements.
Safety is always very important. An audio
device should only be loud enough to serve
the specications. Production Engineers
use electronic and magnetic sensors
to automate production. Civil engineers
design roads and bridges that are safe
for everyone to use.
11. Engineering and Electricity Generation
Q: Do engineers help make electricity for daily use?
A: Yes! So far they have designed systems that use the
seven fundamental methods of directly transforming other
forms of energy into electrical
energy: Fossil-fuel, biomass, hydro/
tidal, wind, nuclear, mechanical
power generation, and solar thermal
energy. Certainly there will be more
methods for electricity generation to
be found, since the engineers, like
artists, are always creating.
12. Environmental Engineering - Battery Recycling
Q: How do Engineers help protect our environment?
A: Batteries contain a number of toxic chemicals and their
improper disposal may cause soil contamination and water
pollution. Engineers know that most typical kinds of batteries
can be recycled, especially lead-acid automotive batteries which
are nearly 90% recycled today. Nickel-
cadmium (Ni-Cd), nickel metal hydride (Ni-
MH), lithium-ion (Li-ion) and nickel zinc
(Ni-Zn) can also be recycled. Engineers are
always looking for ways to make products
safe like integrating fuses into their
designs to prevent overheating and res.
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