Curriculum Map

Introduction to Mechanical Engineering

Author:
Dr. Rana Mitra, Associate Professor of Engineering Technology, Southeastern Louisiana University

This Curriculum Map provides a list of highly relevant and engaging content from throughout AccessScience for use in enriching your teaching. Site assets such as tables, graphs, diagrams, photos, and animations have been mapped to standard topics taught in an introductory Mechanical Engineering course. Use the "Copy Link" functionality to paste a direct link from each asset into your school's learning management system for easy incorporation into your curriculum.

Course Topics

Mechanics of Solids
Asset Description
Diagram This figure from the Statics article illustrates the three-dimensional components of a force in the Cartesian coordinate system. Vector analysis is used to quantify and analyze physical quantities such as force, displacement, velocity, and acceleration. copy link
Diagram This figure, from the article on friction, shows the effect of different materials and lubricants on the degree of friction generated between two mating surfaces. copy link
Biography Frank Philip Bowden did pioneering work in the study of friction, wear, and lubrication (known as tribology). copy link
Diagram Friction affects virtually all aspects of the engineering world, as shown in this example involving a mechanical screw. copy link
Equation This classical equation relates the force (F) acting on a particle to its mass (m) and the acceleration (a) caused by the force. copy link
Diagram This figure, from the article Rotational motion, illustrates the banking of an object, such as a vehicle, moving along a curved path. copy link
Diagram Vibration is of critical importance in machinery, vehicles, and engineering structures. This figure from the Vibration article shows a schematic of a simple vibrating system with one degree of freedom. copy link
Animation This animation demonstrates simple harmonic motion and damping. copy link
Biography Ernst Mach made significant contributions to modern science—not only in a fundamental reappraisal of scientific thought, but also in theoretical studies of the mechanics of solids. copy link
Mechanics of Fluids
Asset Description
Diagram This schematic, from the article on Archimedes’ principle, uses an elegant demonstration to illustrate the concept of buoyancy. copy link
Diagram The Viscosity article includes this schematic showing the shearing of a fluid between two flat, parallel plates. copy link
Table This table, from the article on viscosity, shows coefficients of viscosity for several liquids and gases. copy link
Photograph This single image, from the article Fluid-flow principles, shows laminar, turbulent, and transitional fluid flows. copy link
Diagram This schematic from Fluid-flow principles demonstrates uniform, laminar flow of a fluid within a tube. copy link
Diagram This figure, also from Fluid-flow principles, indicates how a fluid flows around an airfoil. copy link
Equation This equation applies Bernoulli’s equation to the airfoil diagram referenced above. copy link
Animation This animation demonstrates fluid flow and compares boundary-layer flow with laminar flow. copy link
Equation This equation, from the article Pipe flow, depicts the relationships between a drop in fluid pressure in a pipe and the friction factor, fluid velocity, material properties, and pipe geometry. copy link
Table Typical roughness factors for commercial pipe materials are listed in this table from the Pipe flow article. copy link
Biography One of the first people to approach engineering as an academic subject, Irish engineer Osborne Reynolds is particularly remembered for his investigation into turbulent flow in fluids. The Reynolds number in fluid flow is named after him. copy link
Thermodynamics and Thermal Sciences
Asset Description
Diagram This diagram, from the article Temperature, compares various temperature scales used in engineering thermodynamics. copy link
Diagram This diagram, from the article on thermodynamic processes, shows the work done by an expanding gas in a piston-cylinder configuration. copy link
Equation This equation, from the article Thermodynamic principles, presents the first law of thermodynamics, which applies the law of conservation of energy to a thermodynamic system. copy link
Equation This equation from the Thermodynamic principles article expresses the relationship between enthalpy and internal energy in an isolated system. copy link
Equation The ideal gas law, presented in this equation from the Gas article, provides a good approximation of how real gases behave under many conditions. copy link
Table Heat capacity is a measure of the amount of heat energy required to change the temperature of a substance by a given amount. This table from the article on heat capacity shows this value for certain elements. copy link
Graph This graph from the Heat capacity article shows the change in heat capacity of several engineering materials with temperature.br> copy link
Equation Entropy is a measure of the amount of disorder in a thermodynamic system. This equation, from the article Thermodynamic processes, allows the formulation of entropy as an extensive property in a system undergoing reversible heat transfer. copy link
Biography American scientist Willard Gibbs made important contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics, including the concept of free energy, which is defined in terms of enthalpy and entropy. He also developed the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation, which provides information about the temperature dependence of Gibbs free energy. copy link
Diagram The second law of thermodynamics, represented in this diagram from the Thermodynamic principles article, essentially states that a natural process runs in a preferred direction and is irreversible. copy link
Biography The French physicist Sadi Carnot was the founder of the science of thermodynamics. He was the first to show the quantitative relationship between work and heat.> copy link
Diagram The Carnot cycle, shown in this schematic from the article of the same name, is a theoretical thermodynamic cycle used as a standard of comparison for actual cycles. It is the most efficient cycle that can convert thermal energy into mechanical work. copy link
Biography Nikolaus August Otto, a German engineer, developed the first commercially successful four-stroke internal-combustion engine, thus giving rise to the concept of the Otto cycle in thermodynamics. copy link
Animation This concise animation demonstrates the four-stroke thermodynamic cycle in a piston engine. copy link
Materials
Asset Description
Article Section This brief section of the Materials science and engineering article describes the classification of materials used in engineering and technology. copy link
Diagram This representation shows the crystalline structure of metals, from the article Metal. copy link
Biography The Swedish metallurgist Johan August Brinell developed a rapid, nondestructive method of estimating metal hardness, now known as the Brinell hardness test. copy link
Photograph This photograph, from the article on heat treatment in metallurgy, shows the microstructure of plain carbon steel achieved by a heat-treatment process known as annealing. copy link
Graph This graph, from the article Plasticity, shows the stress-strain curve of a typical metal alloy. From this plot, several important mechanical properties of the alloy can be derived. copy link
Biography Robert Abbott Hadfield invented stainless steel and other ferrous alloys, as this biography describes. copy link
Photographs These photographs, from the Metal matrix composite article, exemplify a variety of methods for producing such composites. copy link
Diagram This schematic, from the article on corrosion, illustrates pitting corrosion in a metal with an oxide coating. copy link
Diagram Polymers—important, high-molecular-weight materials in engineering—can be linear or branched with varying amounts and lengths of branching, as this diagram from the Polymer article shows. copy link
Diagram Glasses are classified as amorphous solids. This schematic from the Glass article shows one method of manufacturing flat glass. copy link
Diagram This diagram, from the article on mechanical properties of metal, illustrates the Charpy test—one of several different ways to measure the impact toughness of a material. This test is widely applied in industry. copy link
Diagram This schematic, from the article on carbon nanotubes, illustrates three types of nanotube structures in a rolled-up graphene sheet. These different structures produce unique and excellent mechanical, electrical, and other material properties. copy link
Machines and Machine Design
Asset Description
Diagram This diagram, from the article Machine elements, shows a schematic of a gear—the most common machine element. copy link
Diagram This schematic shows a cam mechanism in an automotive engine—a familiar example from the article Cam mechanism. copy link
Animation This animation demonstrates the action of a cam mechanism in an engine. copy link
Diagram This diagram, from the article Shock absorber, shows a spring-type shock absorber, which is generally used to protect delicate mechanisms. copy link
Animation The use of a shock absorber to minimize the effect of shock on a mechanical system is demonstrated in this animation. copy link
Animation This animation shows why pulleys make it easier to lift heavy loads. copy link
Diagram This engineering drawing of a machine part, from the article Engineering drawing, shows its dimensions and provides additional information, such as a note on heat-treatment specifications. copy link
Biography As an engineer and prolific inventor, Thomas Edison made seminal contributions to modern engineering. This biography elaborates on some of Edison’s many machines, including an electric vote recorder, a ticker-tape machine, and the phonograph. copy link
Design and Manufacturing
Asset Description
Diagram The engineering design process is shown in this flowchart, which captures essential elements of engineering design, beginning with the need to satisfy a desired goal. copy link
Graph One important dimension of the engineering design process is the elapse of time and expenditure of worker effort in a project. This diagram, from the article Engineering design, shows various stages of the design and manufacturing process, with resources spent as a function of time. copy link
Article Section This section of the Design standards article presents a brief description of standards used for specifying materials, measurement, equipment, and industrial production. copy link
Diagram This diagram, from the Schematic drawing article, shows an electrical voltage regulator. It is particularly useful for discussing the symbols that describe electrical elements. copy link
Photograph A typical CAD workstation is shown in this photograph from the article Computer-aided design and manufacturing. copy link
Diagram This schematic shows a typical CAE program from the article Computer-aided engineering. copy link
Diagram This schematic of the architecture of manufacturing, from the article Computer-integrated manufacturing, shows how and when each function is integrated with the others. copy link
Video Biography Vladimir Vapnik has been a pioneer in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. His extensive work has led to the creation and development of algorithms that enable machines to learn and improve their performance. copy link