Greatest engineering advance or innovation?

[neonerd]

What would you say is an engineering advance or innovation that you feel has had an important impact on society and why?

 

[killface]

Stolen from SA: Thopmson Coupling is pretty sweet and new. It might change the amount of fuel we waste turning and whatnot. check out the video.

 

[Kwaipie]

How recent or technological do you want to get?
The printing press certainly had the largest impact in history.

 

[her209]

The Internet?

 

[JS80]

the wheel

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: neonerd
What would you say is an engineering advance or innovation that you feel has had an important impact on society and why?

The firearm, I would say.

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: neonerd
What would you say is an engineering advance or innovation that you feel has had an important impact on society and why?

The firearm, I would say.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: neonerd
What would you say is an engineering advance or innovation that you feel has had an important impact on society and why?

The firearm, I would say.

Ahh, the handgun, it made every man equal.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Power plants possibly - a nation's energy consumption is very often related directly to their wealth, look at why China wants more and more energy in the form of fuel. Power plants are the root source of our present day energy, they can run a lot of things and are doing just that right now, as well as have a large future in transportation.

I mean, what would we do without with it? You can ask this same question to many other things, but chances are those things required energy to make, power plants produce a large amount of it so that it can be spread among large populations and areas.

I was going to originally be more specific and say possibly nuclear power, but that's more about the future and not as widely used as more conventional power plants today.

postCount ++;

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: neonerd
What would you say is an engineering advance or innovation that you feel has had an important impact on society and why?

The firearm, I would say.

The gun singlehandedly ended the age of knights and castles. That was a pretty important impact on society, as it led indirectly to significant social change.

 

[TheoPetro]

jets or airplanes in general. The amount they reduced travel times and shipping times allong with military and civilian uses is insane.

edit:

or would the assembly line count as an advancement?

 

[Midlander]

The semi-conductor?

 

[preslove]

Not engineering, but Calculus was pretty damn important.

 

[neonerd]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: neonerd
What would you say is an engineering advance or innovation that you feel has had an important impact on society and why?

The firearm, I would say.

The gun singlehandedly ended the age of knights and castles. That was a pretty important impact on society, as it led indirectly to significant social change.

I like that idea because of its huge impact on society, but I don't see a way that really impacted the field of engineering.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: neonerd

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: neonerd
What would you say is an engineering advance or innovation that you feel has had an important impact on society and why?

The firearm, I would say.

The gun singlehandedly ended the age of knights and castles. That was a pretty important impact on society, as it led indirectly to significant social change.

I like that idea because of its huge impact on society, but I don't see a way that really impacted the field of engineering.

It had an impact on military engineering.

Personally I'd do something industrial age, like the steam engine or electricity generation.

 

[everman]

Gun powder is a popular one. Written language isn't engineering, nor is mathematics. The internal combustion engine certainly is big. The integrated circuit made so much possible as well.
1. Gun powder
2. Internal combustion engine
3. Integrated circuit
4. Harnessing the atom
5. Nanotech?

 

[preslove]

Heh, homework help

Write an essay about an engineering advance or innovation that you feel has had an important impact on society. Your essay should describe the advance/innovation and discuss its implications for society and the field of engineering.

Geostationary telecommunication satellites. Revolutionized entertainment and communications. If you're on a college campus and can get to the library, How the World Was One is a good book. It's by Arthur C. Clarke, who was the first to come up with the idea, and you could read his chaptes on comsats in an hour or two.

 

[imported_hscorpio]

The transistor is definitely up there towards the top of the list. http://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/index.html

 

[fallensight]

The transistor. Hands down. Without it no radio, tv, computers or the like. Just imagine life without it.

 

[IronWing]

The sink trap. It is the basic advance that led to indoor plumbing.

Paper making --> toilet paper.

Soap.

The windmill/water wheel/pump for raising water.

Antibiotics and vaccines.

Brick making.

Smelting and steel making.

 

[Rubycon]

Air Conditioning without a doubt.

 

[ranmaniac]

Indoor plumbing.

 

[thepd7]

I said firearm but if you are asking for something more easily defined as engineering the integrated circuit and transistor are both HUGE. This encompasses radio, TV, computers, etc. Pretty much anything electronic today. So that is a great one as well.

 

[BoomerD]

Thermos (vacuum) bottle...keeps hot things hot, cold things cold.

What makes it so magical you ask??? HOW DOES IT KNOW?

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: ranmaniac
Indoor plumbing.