In today's society chemistry is greatly involved in the world of engineering. Whether it is aerospace, mechanical, environmental or other engineering fields the makeup of substances is always a key factor which must be known. Engineering today has morphed from only dealing with the physical aspect of the field into the theory behind the field. All engineering fields have unique bonds with the chemistry world. We will discuss many of these bonds in the pages to come.
Aerospace Engineering.
Being the most interesting field of engineering, and the fact that it's my major we will talk about Aerospace Engineering first. Aerospace was devised so that we could further our knowledge in the field of aviation and space flight. When the Wright brothers designed their first fixed winged aircraft they had to understand the concepts of lift, drag, and thrust. Aerospace engineering deals in depth with these three concepts and more. With Boeing and other companies now producing aircraft as large and bigger than 747s the engineers must find ways to make the planes lighter and more efficient as they become enormous. New alloys and metal compositions must be discovered and new forms of engines must be created more powerfully and more efficient than ever before. Chemistry plays a large role in the composition of aircraft parts. A metal that is strong yet light weight had to be discovered to carry the aircraft industry to where it is today. Aerospace engineers perform many tests and experiments on different types of elements to pick the perfect alloy. Due to the hard work of these individuals flight has become the safest and most effective form of travel in the world today.
Now that we have covered the conventional flight portion of engineering we will move on to the more advanced portion which involves rocketry and space flight. Even though many of the aspects of standard flight and space flight are the same, multiple discontinuities between the two exist.