mechanical science

• Maxim #1: No matter what the problem or challenge, unless it involves generating light or eating, there is always a mechanical solution to it. If you step into using wire and magnets, you've stepped away from mechanical science and into electrical engineering. If you've stepped into using chemicals, beyond setting stuff on fire, you've moved to chemical engineering. As for mechanically generating light, the best you can hope for is striking objects together like cavemen.
• Maxim #2: There is always a elegant solution to any mechanical science problem, if you look for it. The elegant solution is all of the following: efficient (work output approx= energy input), precise (getting to the core of the exchange between motion vs. statics), minimal (simple, low material use), and correct (does the specified job).
• Maxim #3: One can trade any energy-consumption problem into a structural-static problem or vice versa. Each of these should be considered equal constraints/solutions. Further, one can lower the usage of one arbitrarily low (but not 0) by increasing the other.
• Maxim #4: Any mechanical science challenge can be met with one of five solution-paths:
  1. A layer of indirection or dissolution: breaking down something into smaller pieces that connect to one another. (XX? a nail into a screw?) (XXExample: you want to keep the strength of steel but you want the flexibility of leather: ring mail).
  2. Adding encapsulation of function: reducing the redundancy of the design or turning a linear problem into a rotational one.
  3. Different or purer material
  4. Greater precision
  5. As a last resort, using more power or adding more structure, but see Maxim #4.
• Maxim #5: If you've ran out of time or budget (or interest), there's always the hidden sixth option: shift control to the user.
• Maxim #6: One can always get arbitrarily close to 100% efficient. All the time. But no one knows how long or how much money it will take to get there... An engineer should aim for at least one 9 (90% or better), otherwise they're just enthusiasts of the art.
• Maxim #7: Any design that requires lubrication (excess means beyond ~2psi or more than 108^oF) is generally bad engineering, making cheap choices that will effect the whole life of the product. It's poor engineering, because nature is doing the work, not the engineer. Any such designs can be replaced by employing mechanical science options of Maxim #4.
• Maxim #8: Design deficiencies are heralded by one of 4 measurable factors:
  1. noise (squeaks, clatter/knocks, pings, loud exhaust)
  2. vibrations or turbulence
  3. heat or light
  4. odors, waste products (smoke, unburned hydrocarbons)
• Most every mechanical contraption can be diagnosed (what is going wrong?) and queried (what is it`s design?) with stethoscope. A machinist should always have one available.
• Stay pure. The test of your skills is how little you depend on other disciplines to do your bidding: electrical, chemical or otherwise to buffer your lack of mechanical engineering.

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See also: mechanical science 2.