A mechanical engineer, electrical engineer and a software engineer were driving a car down a mountain pass when the brakes start to go out. After frantically getting the car down the mountain and rolling it to a stop, all three engineers jump out.
The mechanical engineer starts jacking up the car to take the front wheels off. "The brake pads must be wore out", he says.
The electrical engineer pops open the hood. "There must be a loose connection here somewhere", he says.
The software engineer turns to the other two and says, "Let's drive it back up and see if the problem happens again."
An physicist, a mathematician, and an engineer are all given the task of determining the volume of a little red ball.
The physicist says "This is too easy..." and fills a graduated cylinder with water, places the ball in the water, measures the displaced volume and reports the volume of the ball.
The mathematician responds "It's even easier than that," and derives an equation for the volume of a sphere as a function of its diameter, measure the diameter, and calculates the volume.
The engineer laughs and says "I've got you both beat" and pulls out a table of volumes of little red balls.
Earlier that day, as the three engineers were driving to a technical conference, the car had quit.
The ME said, "I'll take the engine apart with my pocket multitool and find the problem."
The EE said, "No, I think the problem is electrical. I'll test the wires with a wet finger and see if I can tell what circuit died."
The software engineer said, "Hey, fellas. Lets just all get out of the car, get back in again, and see if it goes."
That night, as the physicist, engineer, and mathematician were sleeping in their hotel rooms, a lightning bolt struck the building and set the curtains on fire in each room.
The physicist woke to the noise, and saw the fire. He quickly recalled the entropy and enthalpy of the reaction, and the specific heat of water, and returned from the bathroom with exactly the right amount of water to put out the fire without spilling a drop.
The engineer woke, quickly estimated how much water would be needed, added a 30% safety factor, put out the fire, and threw a towel on the puddle of excess water.
The mathematician woke, cut off a sample of the burning curtain and held it under the faucet. "QED, I have demonstrated the solution," and went back to bed.
Haha I like some of these. 🙂 Do you think the Engineers would be offended if I posted some on http://civilengconnect.com/ ?
