The mechanical engineering field is one of the oldest of the several engineering fields. It is, in fact, concerned with so many areas of modem technology that the tasks and challenges of the mechanical engineer are most interesting and varied. The field is logically associated with mechanical things, but this can lead to a restrictive image. For example, one often associates mechanical engineers with automobiles and, thus, with engines. To the non-engineer this is an acceptable association that implies a knowledge of pistons and carburetors.
Automobile engines are just one of many devices that convert energy into useful work.
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.