Category talk:Indexes of engineering topics

removed added category Indexes of science articles

Hi Funandtrvl, I have removed the added category:Indexes of science articles. Engineering is in my understanding not a subset of science, but a valid topic next to science. The current category "Indexes of engineering topics" can still be found when visiting the parent category:Indexes of topics, which lists also other topics on that level. In case an article covers both science and engineering topics, we can still add the article to both categories. I think that in that way the category organization is more clear. Please discuss if you don't agree. Thanks, SchreyP ^(messages) 08:36, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

The reason why I disagree, and why I tagged engineering as a subset of science, is because that is how Wikipedia has it categorized under Category:Main topic classifications (which it seems, would dictate classifications for the "Indexes of topics"). Also, if you take a look at the main Category:Science, you will see that "Engineering" is under "Technology", which is under "Science", which is under "Knowledge", etc. Thus, I am trying to follow the pattern that Wikipedia uses, and that is the reason why I classified it as such. I'm sure you also noticed that there are a few important topic categories missing under the "Indexes of topics", such as History and Technology, that remain to be created. --Funandtrvl (talk) 20:37, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Interesting reasoning, which I will further investigate to understand. On the other end the engineering article itself also describes the relation of engineering with science under the section Relationships with other disciplines; or in a summary with the words of Theodore von Kármán: Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that has never been (see engineering article for the proper references).

• There is an overlap between the science and engineering practice: both areas of endeavor rely on accurate observation of materials and phenomena. Both use mathematics and classification criteria to analyze and communicate observations, etc
• But the engineering research is quite different from the scientific research. See also the book What Engineers Know and How They Know It from Walter Vincenti.

I'm sure both practices learn from each other and fuel each other to make further steps, but they are in my understanding fundamentally different. Not everything must be scientifically proven or understood, when used by engineers to build new things. Applied science comes close, but is still not the same as engineering. SchreyP ^(messages) 09:22, 10 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes, if you look at Category:Applied sciences, the Category:Engineering is listed under that. Also, engineering undergraduate degrees are "Bachelor of Science in ... Engineering", etc. --Funandtrvl (talk) 20:02, 10 June 2012 (UTC)