101 Things I Learned in Engineering School

I've been collecting these "101 Things I Learned In"... series of books and they're fantastic. As the Kindle editions are being released the price is jumping up to over $32.00 each! This week I am absorbing the Engineering and Architecture editions. I am a technical illustrator by trade and these books definately give me a leg up when holding my own among colleagues and clients...and they're just plain fun to read. Technical information presented in laymen's terms. Publisher, please keep them coming. I finished the Film School book in this series and I will forever view movies from perspectives I had never considered.

This is a fascinating book and should be bought for the "Engineering family tree" graph on the page (no number) next to page one. This graph covers time from 3000 BCE to 2000CE regarding Physics, Chemistry and Biology; for subject matters of; (all of Engineering): Civil Military Mechanical Electrical Materials Environmental Chemical Aero-space Computer Nuclear Biochemical Biomedical. So we see that everything including and after "Chemical" took place in the Twentieth-Century, in the last one hundred plus years, out of the approximately 4,900 years on the graph before it. Wow!

I expected something different from this book, I suppose there are so many branches in the engineering field that the book tries to cover a little bit of everything. However, it contains important and interesting facts/information that can be very valuable for young people interested in studying or beginning studies of engineering. Note: The book cover had scratches :(

I can speak from personal experience that John is a brilliant man. I am recommending this book to my intro to engineering students to help them gain some understanding of what engineers actually do. This book is a great reference and is absolutely entertaining at the same time. It keeps things simple in an otherwise complex world.

I have been expecting this book since it was announced on early 2013. As a prospective graduate of 2013 I hoped this would give me some insight or a refresher of what I had learned during my four years in Engineering School. I'm glad to say this book, while not a earth moving revelation it helps to keep conversations interesting and brings smiles and funny anecdotes to the faculty and teaching body. I really like the small format of the book, perfect for a small coffee table or bookshelf, definitely a book to keep at hand!

Owning a design - build custom homes and light commercial contracting business, providing land planning and development, and involved in real estate, this book certainly helps my 17 year old high school student to get a foot in the doors, and be advanced as we move along with his plans to be a part of our company, and one day being the CEO. I also bought 2 others - 101 Things I Learned books - Architecture School and Business School, and The Art of Construction, being my son loves and does well in Art.

To be honest, it's very unlikely you learned all of these things in Engineering school. That's because Engineering is a broad subject, with fields ranging from Civil Engineering to Mechanical Engineering to Electrical Engineering to Petroleum Engineering to ... you get the drift. I note this because this book is really more of a collection of 101 interesting facts about selected engineering fields, along with some slightly tangential material. For example, item #84 "An Electric Current Only Works if it can Return to its Source" is the only one directly pertaining to my field of Electrical Engineering. Civil and Mechanical Engineering are the fields that get the bulk of the 101 items, and its doubtful if any Electrical Engineer learned in school item #57, "Keep One Leg Still", which basically states that to level a surveying tripod only two of the legs should be adjusted while the third remains untouched, or item #44, "Concrete and Cement are Different Things". And then there's stuff that is just out there, like item #91 "Random Hypothesis #2", which notes that there are three kinds of people in the world: language people, people people, and object people, and engineers tend to be the 'object people' type. Useful information if you've never seen the Big Bang Theory on TV, I suppose. In my opinion the '101 Things I Learned ..." books are better for those who **didn't** study a particular field. I also have the Architecture book, and learned a lot more from that book because I knew very little about the practice of Architecture going in. However, none of these 101 books are really all that practical. The items are usually interesting, but so scattered about that they're mostly useless as any kind of reference. For example, item 58 "How to Read a Topographic Plan" and item 77 "Stop a Crack by Rounding It Off" both impart useful information about topographic maps and cracks respectively, but this isn't likely to be your go-to book if you're working with either topo maps or cracks. This book is fun to read once, and then best passed on to someone else, or donated to a school library.

This is a fantastic book for all engineers and scientist. I purchased multiple copies and give them to my Co-Ops and Interns at the end of their work cycle. Excellent reference book. Doesn't matter how long you been out of school you need to keep one of these on your desk.

Very simple but refreshing insight into basic engineering principles, more tailored towards civil / material engineering. Still enjoyable for an electrical engineer 🙄

An interesting and informative book explaining examples of the applications of engineering principles of the physical world.

Una lettura piacevole nei meandri dell'ingegenria. Non è certo un manuale nel senso letterale del termine ma contiene pochi concetti fondamentali.

Great read for the engineering nerd.

I'm an engineer. It's all true.