<p>Hello, I'm thinking about doing a mechanical engineering major. When I was young I would get in trouble for taking my toys apart and I loved building with anything and everything. This went on until I was about 13. I am still very curious about how things work. I admit I'm more interested in the mechanics of nature than the mechanics of a car, but I would say I have a very curious personality. I guess my question is if you have to be a tinkerer to be an engineer? I admit that I don't know much about fixing cars or repairing household things. I can definitely put things together and what not, but I'm not the "DYI champion" by any means.</p>
<p>Do you think you need to be a pure tinkerer to be a mechanical engineer or an engineer in general?</p>
<p>Chucktown, I definitely know that. To be honest, I still don’t know a ton about what mechanical engineers do, but I definitely know they aren’t mechanics. I was just using those as examples of tinkering. I guess I’m just second guessing my reasons for becoming a mechanical engineer and wondered if you have to be a constant tinkerer/DYI person to be one.
To be honest, HVAC doesn’t sound too thrilling, but designing and developing parts and machines sounds fascinating and cool.
Sorry for my misleading post.</p>
<p>It helps to be willing to work with your hands but you should seek out mechanical engineers in your city and find out what they do. My experience is that most professional engineers are very happy to explain about their profession and help students decide if that is the right path.</p>
<p>It helps to be willing to work with your hands but you should seek out mechanical engineers in your city and find out what they do. My experience is that most professional engineers are very happy to explain about their profession and help students decide if that is the right path.</p>
<p>I was never much of a tinkerer and I did just fine in mechanical engineering. Tinkerers are just one kind of person who sometimes end up in engineering. Alternatively, just being curious about how the world around you works and how you can use that to accomplish tasks is about the best start to engineering you can have.</p>
<p>Thank you xraymancs! I have thought about doing an informational interview with a mechanical engineer. I am going to shadow a petroleum engineer this summer as well.</p>
<p>Colorado_mom- I do. To be honest, I have not done calculus, but I do like math. I would much rather do math than write a paper. Math is so objective and like physics can be applied to so many real world things.</p>
<p>boneh3ad-Thank you for a short, but very straightforward answer! I just worry that I don’t have good enough reasons to become an engineer. I know people who get extremely excited at a university event where they build cars. I’m interested, but to be honest I just don’t seem as excited about it as them. It kind of worries me.</p>
<p>As long as my car gets me from point A to point B, I couldn’t care less about how exactly it all works despite having a degree in mechanical engineering… You don’t have to be a gearhead to do mechanical engineering. There’s so much more to it.</p>
<p>An engineer has to understand how things work. He needs to apply that knowledge to the hardware that he works on. He could be a generalist and be able to work on just about anything or a specialist. </p>
<p>The company I worked for had two people who were specialists on metal bellows. Metal bellows were critical in our designs, hence the two experts. You can go into design or analysis or both. </p>
<p>If being a tinkerer helps you understand how something works, then it is beneficial to you. If you can understand without having to tinker with it, then you don’t need to be a tinkerer.</p>
<p>The field of mechanical engineering is very broad. You can work on HVAC systems for the house down the street or for the Space Station. You can work on car engines or rocket engines. You get to choose what opportunities you get to pursue and your career will derive from those choices you make.</p>
<p>Chucktown, as you said "I’m more interested in the mechanics of nature " really does capture a lot of mechanical engineering. While the “mech” make a lot of folks think of machinery (and that’s a big peice of ME), there are two other big pieces - fluids and heat. </p>
<p>As far as your tinker question, I have seen the whole spectrum. I know ME’s could not change a spark plug, and some that build cars in their spare time. BTW, I also know accountants with this same ranger of tinkering, so its not limited to engineering.</p>
<p>There’s a lot more than that. ME can be broken down into 3 fundamental areas: thermofluids sciences; dynamics and controls; and materials and structures. Each of those has it’s own subfield a but those are the major areas. Mechanical engineers generally apply these topics in the design of new products, including machinery, cars, planes, computers, bulldozers and much more.</p>
<p>". You don’t have to be a gearhead to do mechanical engineering. " Have you ever been asked to fix a car because people assume that as a mechanical engineer, you are able to fix anything mechanical (not that that is the case)?</p>
<p>Mechanical engineering is very broad. To add to what’s already been said, MechEs are also involved in areas like mechatronics and robotics, biomechanics and/or the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, nanoengineering and nanoprocesses, and the development of prosthetics and biomedical devices–really, anything that involves dynamics and kinetics and the like (in addition to what’s been mentioned above by previous posters).</p>
<p>Calculus math is key to engineering. First you have to survive the 3 or 4 semesters of it… and then you often use it for analysis in your other classes. Many students are surprised to learn that Engineering is so math-intense. </p>
<p>One of my brothers who were a tinkered, ie take things out and put them back had a degree in mechanical engineer but he wouldn’t be able to fix anything mechanical, let alone car mechanics. His wife is the one that fix the car when it’s broken.
This guy also managed to get a PE as well. </p>
<p>Colorado mom is correct. Engineering is math and physics intensive. I’ve been attending a few ChemE classes previewing my next year and the stuff is intense. Differential equations and fluid physics are used constantly. And while I won’t claim “I love math” I understand how to use it to be able to solve problems. So you don’t need to enjoy math (although doing so will make you more passionate) you need to understand how it works in the grand scheme. Additionally, you will need to critically think. This is the most vital skill to have. My professors say “you need to know more than compute, because any program will be able to do it better and faster” Essentially, you’ll have to figure out novel ways to solve your problems. If you can do that and the math, I believe you will be good to go</p>