Differences between Engineering and Physics?

[Toblerone1496]

It seems like once you get to the upper levels engineering and physics start to blend together. For example, think of the Large Hadron Collider.

The people that worked on the Higgs Boson theory were definitely physicists but what about everything else? Were the people who actually designed the Collider engineers or physicists? How about the system used to detect the presence of the particle? Was that created by physicists, engineers, or computer scientists?

All of STEM seems to blend together at the advanced level which makes it hard for me to decide on a major. Can anyone offer some explanations that could help?

 

[johnqwertyful]

This has been covered quite extensively. Simply use the "search" tool at the upper right corner.

Searching for "difference between engineering and physics" yielded:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=745023&highlight=difference+engineering+physics
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=713156&highlight=difference+engineering+physics
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=700254&highlight=difference+engineering+physics
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=685212&highlight=difference+engineering+physics

 

[analogdesign]

It seems like once you get to the upper levels engineering and physics start to blend together. For example, think of the Large Hadron Collider.

The people that worked on the Higgs Boson theory were definitely physicists but what about everything else? Were the people who actually designed the Collider engineers or physicists? How about the system used to detect the presence of the particle? Was that created by physicists, engineers, or computer scientists?

All of STEM seems to blend together at the advanced level which makes it hard for me to decide on a major. Can anyone offer some explanations that could help?

All of the above. The tracker was made by a very large team comprised of physicists, engineers, computer scientists, and technicians.

Large projects are built by large groups. The work is partitioned such that people are primarily working in their field of specialization. At the interfaces it helps to have at least a little knowledge of other fields but I disagree that physics and engineering blends at the highest level.

 

[symbolipoint]

It seems like once you get to the upper levels engineering and physics start to blend together. For example, think of the Large Hadron Collider.

The people that worked on the Higgs Boson theory were definitely physicists but what about everything else? Were the people who actually designed the Collider engineers or physicists? How about the system used to detect the presence of the particle? Was that created by physicists, engineers, or computer scientists?

All of STEM seems to blend together at the advanced level which makes it hard for me to decide on a major. Can anyone offer some explanations that could help?

Some engineers become administrators and managers. This is why the very different types of skilled people seem to blend. Someone is coordinating, administrating them.