The Differences Between Physicists and Engineers

[brewnog]

As an engineer, I love to know how and why things work, but am usually happy to accept any explanation which goes beyond the physics (and maths!) which I've learned along the way, provided that a lack of complete understanding doesn't compromise the task at hand.

I have never felt joy, elation, happiness, or even vague satisfaction in arriving at the solution of pages of equations. I get my satifaction out of putting the calculations and theory to use, and seeing something actually happen as a result of all the paper-based work.

 

[FredGarvin]

I have had close to religious experiences when I have been in the room when a turbine let loose after overspeeding. Does that count?

IMO, the main thing that separates the two of us is the level of detail that the two go to. I really don't need to know down to the quark level details that most physicists do on things. I don't have a problem saying "good enough" when it comes to designing or discovering or anything else. When it becomes necessary for me to know things to a greater detail I will go that extra step. Until then, I have too many things to do and learn to worry about those details. I let the physicists do it.

Ask me what time it is and I'll tell you. Ask a physicist what time it is and they'll tell you how to build a clock.

 

[ZapperZ]

Ask me what time it is and I'll tell you. Ask a physicist what time it is and they'll tell you how to build a clock.

Not necessarily. You are forgetting that some of us are experimentalists and have to be as practical as engineers. :)

The problem here is in the nature of the question being asked. If someone just wants to know the time and ask me "what time is it?", then I'll tell him/her. However, when the context of the question is the ISSUE of the nature of space and time, then the answer isn't as straight forward. One might even be frustrated to be asked "well, tell me what you mean by this "time" that you want me to tell you about". That isn't trying to be cute or difficult. This is because when someone hears that you're a physicist, they want you to explain certain things based on what they have heard about so-and-so theory. Or, the question of the nature of time is being studied. Then the answer isn't obvious because the fundamental definition is the actual thing being studied.

So yes, you may or may not get a straight answer when you ask a physicist "what time is it", because it can depend entirely on the context of the question.

.. and this reply is a prime example of that! :)

Zz.

 

[Telos]

My dad was an electrical engineer, so I am partial to engineers. But physicists are ok too, I guess.

Same with my dad.

I can definitively proclaim that the difference between physicists and engineers is that engineers have neater handwriting.

 

[Moonbear]

Same with my dad.

I can definitively proclaim that the difference between physicists and engineers is that engineers have neater handwriting.

I've seen engineers' handwriting! You mean it can get worse? I thought only M.D.s had worse handwriting.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I almost pee'ed in my pants after finally solving an extra difficult question in my many-body physics final exam. Does that count?

It depends. Was it a spiritual pee?

 

[arildno]

I almost pee'ed in my pants after finally solving an extra difficult question in my many-body physics final exam. Does that count?

:)

Zz [Still has some leftover effects from the silly pills]

Just an advice:
Start wearing diapers if you think you are about to make a breakthrough in superconductor physics..

 

[FredGarvin]

I've seen engineers' handwriting! You mean it can get worse? I thought only M.D.s had worse handwriting.

Ex-squeeze me? I think most of us have exceptional handwriting. Of course, you could be talking about cursive handwriting and in that case mine looks like I grab a pencil with a club hand and have a serious case of the shakes. My printing is pretty good though.

 

[FredGarvin]

Not necessarily. You are forgetting that some of us are experimentalists and have to be as practical as engineers. :)

The problem here is in the nature of the question being asked. If someone just wants to know the time and ask me "what time is it?", then I'll tell him/her. However, when the context of the question is the ISSUE of the nature of space and time, then the answer isn't as straight forward. One might even be frustrated to be asked "well, tell me what you mean by this "time" that you want me to tell you about". That isn't trying to be cute or difficult. This is because when someone hears that you're a physicist, they want you to explain certain things based on what they have heard about so-and-so theory. Or, the question of the nature of time is being studied. Then the answer isn't obvious because the fundamental definition is the actual thing being studied.

So yes, you may or may not get a straight answer when you ask a physicist "what time is it", because it can depend entirely on the context of the question.

.. and this reply is a prime example of that! :)

Zz.

Hmmm...maybe the time-clock thing wasn't the right quote to use...Generalizing is so much fun.

 

[hhh79bigo]

Engineering is a branch of physics. The physics look in most cases at the models of universal problems where as the engineer puts that model in the real world perception.

Both are intellectually the same subjects.

Both will go into different details of different topics, and both can rely on each other to be able to do what the other cant

 

[ZapperZ]

Just an advice:
Start wearing diapers if you think you are about to make a breakthrough in superconductor physics..

No, then I don't have to worry about that since I got out of that field 3 years ago.

Zz.

 

[arildno]

No, then I don't have to worry about that since I got out of that field 3 years ago.

Zz.

Not your subconscious, though. It is still mulling over the issues..

 

[ZapperZ]

Not your subconscious, though. It is still mulling over the issues..

Oh, my subconscious is already wearing a diaper. So no leak is possible from "him".

Now my evil twin Skippy, he's another matter...

Zz.

 

[arildno]

Oh, my subconscious is already wearing a diaper. So no leak is possible from "him".

Now my evil twin Skippy, he's another matter...

Zz.

 

[Moonbear]

Ex-squeeze me? I think most of us have exceptional handwriting. Of course, you could be talking about cursive handwriting and in that case mine looks like I grab a pencil with a club hand and have a serious case of the shakes. My printing is pretty good though.

Yes, that's it...why is it that engineers can't write in cursive? But when it comes to printing, I think most scientists have pretty meticulous writing; maybe not when jotting out a letter to a friend, but you know you need to print legibly and keep everything tidy or you risk losing that decimal point somewhere and someone could die!

 

[brewnog]

Engineering is a branch of physics.

I don't like this one bit. Engineering is as much about resource management, finance, and project management as it is about fluid mechanics and stress analysis. Sure, we're all technical people, and we even use some of the same equations and computer programmes sometimes, but the ends and means of engineering and physics are entirely different. Naturally, the disciplines do cross over frequently, and both rely on each others' presence, but I think they're very distinct fields.


My handwriting is absolutely attrocious, which is why I word-process everything which needs reading by someone else. It doesn't help that I'm a cuddiwifter (and lots of other engineers are too), but I've tried to improve it to no avail.

I knew an architect who had the most beautiful handwriting; he'd modeled it on the style you're supposed to use on technical drawings.

 

[Bladibla]

Engineering is a branch of physics. The physics look in most cases at the models of universal problems where as the engineer puts that model in the real world perception.

Both are intellectually the same subjects.

Both will go into different details of different topics, and both can rely on each other to be able to do what the other cant

As brewnog mentioned, this is a very inane opinion.

To say such things, is to say that chemistry is a brach of physics '...because it is QM practically used on chemicals!' No, Richard Feynman was wrong. Being a master at physics doesn't make him impervious to mistakes.

The only thing sciences have in common is that experimentation is used to verify would-be theories in each discipline.

 

[motai]

Yes, that's it...why is it that engineers can't write in cursive? But when it comes to printing, I think most scientists have pretty meticulous writing; maybe not when jotting out a letter to a friend, but you know you need to print legibly and keep everything tidy or you risk losing that decimal point somewhere and someone could die!

Bah.

My handwriting is extremely small, but very intricate (not too articulate though) and precise. I can fit 9 of my lines (probably more now if I have a super-sharp pencil) onto one college-ruled line. If an advanced civilization stumbles onto one of my notes, they will think that they found the Rosetta Stone or something.

My question is... is this a strange genetic defect ingrained into my personality, or am I just odd? My grandfather also writes like I do, he's also the sciency-type.

Oh, it is just as small now, if not even smaller.

edit: my linky no worky.

 

[Bladibla]

Bah.

My handwriting is extremely small, but very intricate (not too articulate though) and precise. I can fit 9 of my lines (probably more now if I have a super-sharp pencil) onto one college-ruled line. If an advanced civilization stumbles onto one of my notes, they will think that they found the Rosetta Stone or something.

My question is... is this a strange genetic defect ingrained into my personality, or am I just odd? My grandfather also writes like I do, he's also the sciency-type.

Oh, it is just as small now, if not even smaller.

edit: my linky no worky.

So, then are you a engineer? Because otherwise, they would be no point talking about your handwriting.

 

[Nomy-the wanderer]

My handwriting is just..uhum..as great :D

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ask me what time it is and I'll tell you. Ask a physicist what time it is and they'll tell you how to build a clock.

I see it this way: The average person tells you what time it is, the engineer tells you how to build a clock, the physicist tells you about GR, and the philosopher asks if time really exists.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I see it this way: The average person tells you what time it is, the engineer tells you how to build a clock, the physicist tells you about GR, and the philosopher asks if time really exists.

Reminds me of something we used to say about consultants..

Consultant: Person who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Reminds me of something we used to say about consultants..

Consultant: Person who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is.

Thats esp funny since my latest project contract requires my customer to supply me with all of the required programming software.

 

[Moonbear]

Bah.

My handwriting is extremely small, but very intricate (not too articulate though) and precise. I can fit 9 of my lines (probably more now if I have a super-sharp pencil) onto one college-ruled line. If an advanced civilization stumbles onto one of my notes, they will think that they found the Rosetta Stone or something.

My question is... is this a strange genetic defect ingrained into my personality, or am I just odd? My grandfather also writes like I do, he's also the sciency-type.

Oh, it is just as small now, if not even smaller.

edit: my linky no worky.

My handwriting was very tiny when I was still in high school, but then my old, half-blind professors complained they couldn't read my handwriting without a magnifying glass (my post-doc mentor really appreciated it if you typed everything in 14 or 16 point font ), so I started writing bigger, but then my handwriting also got sloppier.

 

[motai]

My handwriting was very tiny when I was still in high school, but then my old, half-blind professors complained they couldn't read my handwriting without a magnifying glass (my post-doc mentor really appreciated it if you typed everything in 14 or 16 point font ), so I started writing bigger, but then my handwriting also got sloppier.

I am probably going to have to do the same... so much for the "Ancient-Tome" style mass gatherings of information onto a single page. I can write much larger, but the writing usually gets slanted, uneven, and sloppier than when I write small (then again, one must write small when writing at those sizes, elsewise nothing could be read).

Perhaps I could supplement a living by working part time in the art industry, writing people's names on grains of rice.

 

[young e.]

Scientist Make The World The Way It Is...engineers Make The World As It Was Never Been Before!

 

[young e.]

Phycicsist Make The World The Way It Is...engineers Make The World As It Has Never Been Before...!

 

[Lisa!]

Not at all, but I think this may depend on your definition of religion.

But sure enough we can't discuss(or even ask about) everyone's definition of religion in this site, can we? Isn't it a kind of dogma that we can't discuss religion everywhere?

 

[Bladibla]

But sure enough we can't discuss(or even ask about) everyone's definition of religion in this site, can we? Isn't it a kind of dogma that we can't discuss religion everywhere?

Nope. Discussions of religion has soften ended in justa hurling of insultd between diffreent members, that it HAD to be banned from discussion.

 

[russ_watters]

Phycicsist Make The World The Way It Is...engineers Make The World As It Has Never Been Before...!

Engineers make the world - physicists explain it.

 

[Moonbear]

Engineers make the world - physicists explain it.

Oh, so that's why physics is considered so difficult - they have to try to explain what engineers have done! (Sorry, you walked right into that one.)

 

[Lisa!]

I want to rewrite my imaginary post:

Engineers make the world - physicists explain it.

Physicists make a world too. Imaginary world of course!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We all know that a super-intelligent race of beings known as white mice made the world. Engineers rearrange it.

 

[Lisa!]

We all know that a super-intelligent race of beings known as white mice made the world. Engineers rearrange it.

rearrange it? well you need to destroy it first and then rearrange it!

 

[Nomy-the wanderer]

Can u live now without engineers? No..

 

[Lisa!]

Engineers and physicists need each other.

 

[marlon]

Engineers make the world - physicists explain it.

very strange observation. You are wrong though, it is : physicists invent and engineers implement...hence, the only true engineer is a physicist. Or is it : the only true physicist is an engineer ? arrgg, what do i care :zzz:

regards
marlon

 

[heman]

physicists invent and engineers implement

Exactly!

...hence, the only true engineer is a physicist. Or is it : the only true physicist is an engineer ? arrgg, what do i care :zzz:

regards
marlon

path of the Physicist is obviously longer but on an earlier stage coincides with the path of Engineer!

 

[Nomy-the wanderer]

Scientists in general don't invent...They observe and try to explain..

Engineers can invent something that is an application for this discovery or observation..

In both cases imagination is needed, a certain way of seeing things is needed, a method is needed..

It differs, for engineers u've to be practical, a physicist can have all the time in the world...It's a character and it depends, there r no rules for that kinda of thing..

 

[marlon]

Scientists in general don't invent...They observe and try to explain..

Isn't the explaining about inventing new models to fit experimental data, hmmm ? Duuhh

Engineers can invent something that is an application for this discovery or observation..

How on Earth can you build a practical implementation of something new if you are not able to fully caracterize it ? Where do you think this caracterization come from ? Devine intervention ?

for engineers u've to be practical,

Ever heard of an experimental physicist ?

a physicist can have all the time in the world...

if you are a physicist yourself i want to ask you : where do you work ?
if you are no physicist i want to say to you : you obviously do not have any idea about what a physicist is and what he/she does

marlon

 

[heman]

if you are a physicist yourself i want to ask you : where do you work ?
if you are no physicist i want to say to you : you obviously do not have any idea about what a physicist is and what he/she does

marlon

A physicist passes time on the name of doing abstract things which peoples say research..
They get invitations for international conferences and you can find them sleeping during conferences/lectures and wondering actively on the tourist spots after that..
They eat choclates,ice creams,sleep a lot,and when they have nothing to do,think a bit sitting on armchair about their dreams which they could not fulfill!
How is my conception of Physicists!

 

[Lisa!]

A physicist is a person who says things which no one can understand it even himself or herself. For a physicist everything means physics even their jokes are base on physics rules.

 

[heman]

A physicist is a person who says things which no one can understand it even himself or herself..

Exactly!Sometimes they don't even have idea of what they are talking!

For a physicist everything means physics even their jokes are base on physics rules.

Bad Jokes!

 

[Nomy-the wanderer]

Isn't the explaining about inventing new models to fit experimental data, hmmm ? Duuhh

No it isn't, this isn't an invention, this is an explanation...This is something that is there, that u study and u explain it, work out models to fit and stuff, it needs imagination and creation..But it's not something that wasn't there...Based on what u understand as a physicist, an engineer can make machines that were never there before, and therefore it can be called an invention..Theories are about things that do exist, so once u start making theories about things that doesn't exist, u r inventing and when u r inventing, people won't give u much attention cause u r talking nonesense..Just like when Galileo said the Earth is round, and everyone thought it wasn't but later when they proved it, people said he was right, but Galileo wasn't dreaming and wasn't inventing something that wasn't there clearly and that's why they beleived him later..

How on Earth can you build a practical implementation of something new if you are not able to fully caracterize it ?

Have i said that physicists are not needed or useless?? Not at all, i just said that practicality is what an engineer is all about

Ever heard of an experimental physicist ?

Have i said that physicists never work their hands?

definition for practicality:concerned with actual use rather than theoretical possibilities
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=practicality

Isn't that what engineers do?

 

[Lisa!]

Exactly!Sometimes they don't even have idea of what they are talking!

Because physicists' mind work faster than their tongue!

 

[heman]

So you are an Physicist

 

[Lisa!]

So you are an Physicist

Why are you insulting at me or perhaps physicists?

 

[marlon]

No it isn't, this isn't an invention, this is an explanation...This is something that is there, that u study and u explain it, work out models to fit and stuff, it needs imagination and creation..

Err, what about all the theoretical models that predicted physical quantities like anti-matter, quarks,...which weren't experimentally observed decades later. For example, anti matter was a consequence of a theoretical model that was not INVENTED to describe anti-matter, because it was not yet known. I hope you see your mistakes. Besides, the argument that 'it is already there' is very lame. For example, electrons 'have always been there' but the theoretical model that describes their dynamics (ie quantum mechanics) is not just something that was already there. you are missing the point that physics is an abstract mathematical version of what is going on in nature. The clue is to link physical phenomena with mathematical equations.

...Based on what u understand as a physicist, an engineer can make machines that were never there before, and therefore it can be called an invention..

this is contradictory since the models that an engineer uses are created by the physicist. The engineer merely implements them in order to create a product that respects certain benchmarks. In this respect, engineers create something that already has been described in theory...

about things that doesn't exist, u r inventing a

So by implication, a physicist invents and an engineer implements...voilà

Have i said that physicists are not needed or useless??

That was not my point

Not at all, i just said that practicality is what an engineer is all about

Untrue, read the above answers

Have i said that physicists never work their hands?

No you did not. When did i claim that you did ?

regards
marlon

 

[Nomy-the wanderer]

Alright Marlon, maybe it's linguistics that are standing in the way here's what the longman good old dictionary says(if my concept is wrong u cna blame the dictionary for it):"invent:USAGE One discoveres something that existed before but was not known,such as place .One invents something that didn't exist before, such as a machine."

So for me inventing is about something that is there for the 1st time, there was no telephones, airplanes, trains, or kitchen machines all over on earth, until someone invented these stuff, based on what?? Based on either a simple observation, or a theory(if it's a mere invention, if it explains something that does not exist than it cannot be valid), or a valid fact explained or experimented by a physicist...Physicist need to be creative and have wild imagination to make models, methods, theories...

Maybe i am mistaken and i don't understand u, cause i do not have the same definitions as u...But this is what i think.And instead of writing invented in caps u could simply tell me how u define that...

I understand u mean by inventing, that the models the theories, weren't written all over stuff, i know..But i believe that mathematics are there, as u said mathematics is the language u express physics, but i also believe that mathematics is existent before we can put definitions for it, it's all over, and it makes u use it and think of it. I donno how to say that in a more understandable way, but i think that sciences in general pushes us to discover more, it's something beyond our control..

In a way an engineer could be a physicist and vice versa...But still engineers need to be practical, and if they r not, they should look for another job...Physicists do not have to think about money, and there shouldn't be money problems for them, u hire an engineer to save u money...

 

[marlon]

Physicists do not have to think about money, and there shouldn't be money problems for them,

I am sorry but this is just incorrect. You obviously do not have any experience with the conditions in which physicists have to work nowadays.

regards
marlon