The mechanical engineer possesses this universally applicable background in thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, and combustion theory which is basic to all such systems. The mechanical engineer also has a similar understanding of materials from steels to textiles to biological materials to the latest plastics and the most exotic high temperature composites. The point is that everything that is built is achieved by applying these same principles and using these same materials. To understand the dynamic nature of most mechanical devices and systems requires a thorough mastery of forces and stresses, of vibrations and acoustics, of shock and impact, of deformation and fracture. Yet these are basic to virtually every product devised by people or found in nature.
Automobiles are just one small example of where they are important.
Thus, the mechanical engineer is a designer who creates physical things of all sorts because the mechanical engineer's breadth of background is everywhere applicable. The mechanical engineer produces machines to build other machines, and thus is in the forefront of new manufacturing technology. In this role the engineer is faced with the task of building new things created by all kinds of engineers. This exposes the engineer to other technologies, and the mechanical engineer must be able to grasp their essence easily. For example, as the builder of energy devices to tap the oceans' resources, the mechanical engineer is simultaneously one of the oceanographers, one of the chemists, one of the environmentalists, as well as the master designer.