History
Before diesel and electric engines, early trains were powered by this.
What is steam?
This material is most commonly used for modern highway pavement in the U.S.
What is a asphalt?
This type of vehicle runs of electricity stored in batteries instead of gasoline.
What is an electric vehicle (EV)?
This 2006 Rascal Flatts song from the movie Cars is about enjoying the journey rather than rushing to the destination.
What is Life Is a Highway?
This famous equation relates force, mass, and acceleration.
What is F=ma?
This mass production method, introduced by Henry Ford, made automobiles affordable for average Americans.
What is the assembly line?
This rigid pavement material is made primarily from cement, aggregates, and water.
What is Portland cement concrete (PCC)?
This diamond-shaped yellow sign warns drivers of hazards ahead.
What is a warning sign?
In this Journey hit, a small-town girl and a city boy both board a midnight train “going anywhere.”
What is Don’t Stop Believin’?
This unit is used to measure power and is equal to one joule per second.
What is a watt?
The first road across the continental U.S., completed in 1913, was named after this U.S. president.
What is Lincoln Highway?
This layer sits directly beneath asphalt and helps distributes loads to the subgrade.
What is the base course?
This cable stayed bridge made for pedestrians and cyclists only, opened in 2025 in Philadelphia.
What is the Christian to Crescent Connector (or Schuylkill River Trail)?
In this 1997 disaster film, a luxury ocean liner hits an iceberg during its maiden voyage.
What is Titanic?
This type of stress occurs when forces pull a material apart.
What is tensile stress?
Completed in 1883, this bridge was the first steel-wire suspension bridge and was once the longest suspension bridge in the world.
What is the Brooklyn Bridge?
This soil layer forms the natural foundation of a roadway and must be compacted before construction.
What is the subgrade?
Automated speed cameras are installed along main roads and highways, and you must exceed the speed limit (mph) by this amount or more to receive a ticket. Speeds just slightly over the limit do not trigger a citation.
What is 11 miles per hour?
In this 1985 film, a modified DeLorean must reach 88 mph to activate time travel.
What is Back to the Future?
This dimensionless number represents the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces in fluid flow.
What is Reynolds number?
This 1956 U.S. law led to the construction of the Interstate Highway System.
What is the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956?
This laboratory test measures asphalt binder consistency and temperature susceptibility.
What is the penetration test?
This national organization publishes the "Green Book," which sets geometric design standards for highways and streets in the U.S.
What is AASHTO (American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials)?
In this Marvel film, a group of intergalactic heroes travel through space aboard a ship called the Milano while trying to protect a powerful Infinity Stone.
What is Guardians of the Galaxy?
The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge significantly advanced research in this field of engineering.
What is aerodynamics (or wind engineering)?