Engineering is the discipline, skill, and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.
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48 views
Does “liquid-injection damp-proofing” work to water-proof walls?
There are technologies for sale, especially in Germany, to drill holes in the walls of a cellar, and inject into the concrete or masonry a liquid, such as Sodium Silicate
The manufacturers promise ...
13
votes
1answer
450 views
Did big projects used to get finished on time and on budget?
Big projects (software, engineering, architecture etc.) are plagued by cost and time overruns, or so it is widely thought.
Nicholas Taleb argues in Antifragile that this is a modern phenomenon:
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8
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3answers
2k views
Does a turbo-charged engine require a “cooling down” period?
Some people are saying that after having driven a car with a turbo-charged engine, you need to let the engine run for several seconds (or even minutes) before switching off the engine. But nobody is ...
12
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2answers
1k views
Do Möbius strip conveyor belts last longer?
According to Wikipedia:
Giant Möbius strips have been used as conveyor belts that last longer because the entire surface area of the belt gets the same amount of wear...
(No citations given.) ...
14
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3answers
941 views
Can you harvest energy from radio transmissions?
This video gives instructions on building a circuit to harvest energy from radio waves in the air using some pretty straightforward circuitry.
The creator has another video showing such a circuit ...
10
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0answers
331 views
Instant, painless amputation via high-pressure steam
Several years ago, a friend of mine who had a long career as a commercial/industrial plumber related an anecdote about a colleague who was working at a power plant. He was in the vicinity of a ...
8
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1answer
2k views
Does wearing a helmet cause/aggravate hair loss?
A person I know (and his colleagues) does not wear his civil engineers helmet because they believe that it causes or contributes to hair loss. An ehow post also makes the same claim regarding ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
Do you need to break in new engine on a car/bike for first 1,000 km by driving slowly and otherwise following manual's advice?
Normally car manuals say to let the car break in gently, not accelerating or breaking fast for first 1,000 km or driving below 80km/h. Is that really necessary in today's world? Is there any proof ...
23
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2answers
965 views
Was NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter lost because engineering teams used different measuring units?
I read in a book that NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter was lost on September 23, 1999, at a cost of $125 million, because one engineering team used metric units, while another one used inches for a key ...
10
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2answers
1k views
Can you improve a car's engine by driving the car fast?
Many car enthusiasts claim the following:
take 2 identical cars (equal horse power, torque etc).
give one car to an old person who only drives it slowly
give the other car to the car enthusiast ...
8
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0answers
586 views
Is a proposal to build an artificial mountain being seriously considered?
Thijs Zonneveld, a former cyclist, made a joke that a 2,000m high artificial mountain should be created in the Netherlands.
Now, the mass media are reporting that it is being seriously considered:
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11
votes
1answer
419 views
Can Iran afford to put someone on the moon by 2025?
Iran has claimed that it intends to put someone on the moon by 2025. I find it hard to believe that Iran has the necessary financial resources to accomplish such a mission.
Notwithstanding some ...
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3answers
478 views
Is there anything inexplicable about how the WTC Twin Towers collapsed? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
On 9/11, was Building 7 destroyed in a controlled explosion?
Having just watched the movie Zeitgeist, I'm a bit unsettled because I don't know how to refute the idea ...
12
votes
2answers
879 views
Could One Man Have Built The Coral Castle?
Supposedly, just one man built the Coral castle. Jilted by the woman who would be his wife, and miraculously recovering from a terminal case of tuberculosis, Edward Leedskanlin built the structure in ...
