Mechanical Engineering Basics
The term for the maximum stress a material can withstand before breaking.
What is tensile strength?
This famous tower in Italy is known for tilting due to a weak foundation.
What is the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
He developed the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
Who was Isaac Newton?
This TV show follows the misadventures of aerospace engineers and physicists in their daily lives.
What is The Big Bang Theory?
This is the only letter that doesn’t appear in any U.S. state names.
What is the letter Q? (Fun fact: Despite its prominence in other areas, Q is not used in any U.S. state name.)
A structure designed to resist bending under load is called this.
What is a beam?
This event in 1912 involved a famous ship sinking due to striking an iceberg.
What was the Titanic?
This American inventor is best known for his development of the light bulb and phonograph.
Who was Thomas Edison?
In this Marvel film, Tony Stark, an engineer and inventor, designs and builds an advanced suit of armor to become a superhero.
What is Iron Man?
This famous type of cheese is named after a Dutch city but was actually invented in England.
What is Gouda? (Fun fact: Gouda cheese is named after the city of Gouda in the Netherlands, but it was first made in England.)
This is the resistance that occurs when one object moves over another, often resulting in the generation of heat.
What is friction?
In 1970, this space mission experienced an oxygen tank explosion that forced the crew to abort their lunar landing and safely return to Earth.
What was Apollo 13?
This American inventor created the first practical assembly line for automobile production, making cars affordable for the masses.
Who was Henry Ford?
In this 2008 Disney-Pixar film, a trash-compacting robot is left to clean up an abandoned Earth and shows surprising resourcefulness by fixing broken machinery.
What is WALL-E?
This popular beverage was originally sold as a medicine and claimed to cure headaches, indigestion, and even exhaustion.
What is Coca-Cola? (Fun fact: Coca-Cola was first marketed as a medicinal tonic in the 1880s!)
This principle states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
What is Newton's third law of motion?
This iconic London landmark experienced a catastrophic failure in 1831, when one of its arches collapsed due to a foundation that couldn’t support its weight.
What was the London Bridge collapse?
This Italian polymath was known for his designs of early helicopters, bridges, and armored vehicles centuries before they could be built.
Who was Leonardo da Vinci?
In this 1999 film, a group of animated toys, including Buzz Lightyear and Woody, must use creative problem-solving to overcome engineering-like challenges in a house and a toy store.
What is Toy Story 2?
This insect is capable of lifting objects up to 50 times its own body weight, making it one of the strongest creatures on Earth relative to its size.
What is an ant? (Fun fact: Ants can carry items 50 times their own weight, equivalent to a human lifting a car!)
This law states that the pressure of a fluid decreases as the speed of the fluid increases.
What is Bernoulli's principle?
This spacecraft exploded 73 seconds after launch in 1986, marking one of NASA's greatest tragedies.
What was the Space Shuttle Challenger?
She was the first female engineer hired at NASA and a leader in spacecraft design.
Who was Mary Jackson?
This long-running franchise features a famous starship whose engineers and crew face mechanical challenges, like warp drive malfunctions and shielding failures, while exploring space.
What is Star Trek?
Which European King was known for his "sexy legs"?
King Louis XIV of France