Engineering Fundamentals
What is the SI unit of force?
Newton (N)
What is the SI unit of temperature?
What causes electrical current to flow through a circuit?
potential difference
What is Newtons second Law?
F = ma
What year was UA founded?
1831
What does FEA stand for?
Finite Element Analysis
What happens to the pressure of an ideal gas if its volume decreases while temperature stays constant?
It increases
In a series circuit, what is the same through every component?
Current
What is the difference between stress and strain?
Stress is force per area; strain is deformation relative to original length
What was Alabama's football team originally called before becoming known as the Crimson Tide?
The Thin Red Line
What is the purpose of Factor of Safety?
To provide a margin between expected/design loads and failure
What is the First Law of Thermodynamics fundamentally a statement of?
Conservation of energy
If voltage doubles while resistance stays constant, what happens to current?
Current Doubles
What caused the failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, not part of the question, but if you can come up with another example of the phenomena that I like, you get an extra 100
collapsed into Puget Sound in 1940 due to wind-induced aeroelastic flutter.
What year did UA begin offering engineering classes?
1837
What engineering principle says that every action has an equal and opposite reaction?
Newtons 3rd Law
A heat engine receives 1,000 J of heat and produces 300 J of work. What is its efficiency?
30%
A 12 V source is connected to a 4 Ω resistor. What current flows?
3A
Why does a hollow tube often provide better strength-to-weight performance than a solid rod of the same mass?
Material can be moved away from the neutral axis, increasing resistance to bending without adding as much mass.
What building opened in 1909 when UA's College of Engineering became a separate division?
B.B.Comer Hall
What dimensionless number compares inertial forces to viscous forces in fluid flow?
Reynolds number
A refrigerator is left running with its door open in a small sealed room. Does the room eventually become cooler, warmer, or stay the same?
Warmer. The refrigerator removes heat from inside itself but releases that heat, plus the energy used by the refrigerator, into the room.
Why can birds sit on a power line without being electrocuted?
The bird's body is essentially at the same electrical potential at both feet. With very little voltage difference across its body, very little current flows through it.
A simply supported beam has a downward point load at its center. Where is the bending moment largest?
At the center/load location
UA was one of the first how many universities in the nation to offer engineering classes?
5