Understanding Engineers

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gamzultovah

Lifer
Aug 4, 2019
3,205
21,334
For The Pipe Smoking Engineers Amongst Us…little humor.

Understanding Engineers 1

Two engineering students were riding bicycles across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get the great bike?"



The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."



The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice: The clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."

Understanding Engineers 2

To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Understanding Engineers 3

A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers.
The engineer fumed, "What's with those guys? We've been waiting for fifteen minutes!"
The doctor chimed in, "I don't think I've ever seen such inept golf!"
The priest said, "Here comes the green-keeper. Let's have a word with him." He said, "Hello George, What's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?"
The green-keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime!"
The group fell silent for a moment.
The priest said, "That's so sad. I'll say a special prayer for them tonight."
The doctor said, "Good idea. I'll contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if here's anything she can do for them."
The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"

Understanding Engineers 4

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.

Understanding Engineers 5

The graduate with a Science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The graduate with an Engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"
The graduate with a Commerce degree asks, "How much will it cost?"
The graduate with an Arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?

Understanding Engineers 6

Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it isn't sufficiently complex yet.

Understanding Engineers 7

An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess."

He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn back into a beautiful princess and stay with you for one week."

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want."

Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What's the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend. But a talking frog - now that's cool."

And Finally

Two engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking at its top. A woman walked by and asked what they were doing

"We're supposed to find the height of this flagpole," said one, "but we don't have a ladder."

The woman took a pliers from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground. Then she took a tape measure from her purse, took a measurement, announced, “21 feet," and walked away.

One engineer shook his head and laughed, "A lot of good that does us. We ask for the height and she gives us the length!"

Both engineers have since quit their engineering jobs and have been elected to Congress.
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
10,018
16,016
2a4b33d08a49012ee3c400163e41dd5b


7967d5d05065012f2fd300163e41dd5b
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
60,622
I need a few good laughs this morning. Thanks! I had a friend who was an engineer. He was intensely literal and hyper focused, but he did have that unusual insight that often accompanies those traits. He was invited to be on a panel at church reflecting on the challenges and opportunities of age, meant to draw on some insight and wisdom of age, and he told about social security benefits. However, the guy was great on a canoe trip down the Black River, on top of every detail.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,211
60,622
I think white collar dads want their kids to be doctors, lawyers, and teachers, and blue collar dads want their kids to be engineers. My college buddy's dad was a postal worker and wanted him to be an engineer, but he followed his skill set and became a damned good newspaper copyeditor. We're still friends.
 

renfield

Lifer
Oct 16, 2011
5,141
41,877
Kansas
Engineers aren’t boring people, they’re just interested in things that bore most people. They’re also very likely to be massive smart-asses. I remember one meeting where one of my co-workers told someone 2 levels above him “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but yours is wrong.”

daeaea124d796b7ed26d9b8ed0438e8d.jpg


I knew in 2nd grade I wanted to be an aircraft structural analyst. After 35 years of engineering I can say that the stereotypes are simultaneously both true and false. The common thread is the love of solving a really tough problem with an incredibly elegant solution. So very, very sweet when you can pull that off.
 

vink

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 31, 2015
225
159
Longueuil, Quebec
As an architect, I love joking about engineers. And about that your joke number 2 does not make any sense as the structural engineer will always calculate their beams and columns oversized as it’s safer and quicker and easier for them, us architects got to challenge them a bit so that they work harder ;) so I guess they would see the glass not big enough..

My favorite engineer joke was told to me by a student of mine. “ how do you recognize a engineer in a group of people? Don’t worry he’ll let you know!”
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
20,754
49,212
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Engineers aren’t boring people, they’re just interested in things that bore most people. They’re also very likely to be massive smart-asses. I remember one meeting where one of my co-workers told someone 2 levels above him “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but yours is wrong.”

daeaea124d796b7ed26d9b8ed0438e8d.jpg


I knew in 2nd grade I wanted to be an aircraft structural analyst. After 35 years of engineering I can say that the stereotypes are simultaneously both true and false. The common thread is the love of solving a really tough problem with an incredibly elegant solution. So very, very sweet when you can pull that off.
As the son of an engineer, I can attest this this. Pop might have been able to effortlessly do all manner of computations in his head, like cube roots, etc, but his search was for the simple yet elegant solution, from constructing a fence on his property to his invention of the foil air bearing.
 

karam

Lifer
Feb 2, 2019
2,587
9,873
Basel, Switzerland
As far as I understand it, and have three engineers in my close family (all three mechanical engineers, two of which became programmers in the 80s, and one who is an aerospace engineer who designs rocket engines), engineers are problem solvers first and foremost. This can make them want to solve things that aren’t even problematic, and be quite focused about it.
Here’s a good vid making the point in both ways: of their efficiency as well as their inefficiency:

As i wrote above, maybe in the future I’ll study mech eng, but will always lament not studying medicine, the human body, both at a macro and chemical level, is the most complex “engine” on the planet.
 

gamzultovah

Lifer
Aug 4, 2019
3,205
21,334
As the son of an engineer, I can attest this this. Pop might have been able to effortlessly do all manner of computations in his head, like cube roots, etc, but his search was for the simple yet elegant solution, from constructing a fence on his property to his invention of the foil air bearing.
Foil Air Bearing, Patent No. US3366427A. Very ingenious. That must have opened up a world of possibilities for designers and engineers?