Authors' Homepages:   Anthony Bedford  
Wallace Fowler  
Chapter 12: Introduction
"How do engineers design and construct the devices we use, from simple objects such as chairs and
pencil sharpeners to complicate ones such as dams, cars, airplanes, and spacecraft? They must have
a deep understanding of the physics underling the design of these devices, and they must be able to
use mathematical models to predict their behavior. Students of engineering begin to learn how to
analyze and predict the behaviors of physical systems by studying mechanics."