What Engineers Know and How They Know It
Walter G. Vincenti · first published 1990 · ISBN 9780801845888
Vincenti answers a question engineering school barely touches: what exactly do engineers know, and how do they come to know it? Using case studies from aviation history, he shows that engineering knowledge is not just applied science. It includes design concepts, technical specifications, practical rules that only work experience teaches, and patterns that emerge from building real things.
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The Best Books for Engineering Students
Most of your classes teach you science or math as tools. This book teaches you how your discipline actually produces knowledge. Understanding your own field's epistemology is what separates someone who can follow a procedure from someone who can invent new ones.