What, according to you, was the greatest engineering achievement in 20th century & why?
the microchip. why? so you could ask this questionblademaster wrote:
What, according to you, was the greatest engineering achievement in 20th century & why?
but srsly, the microchip by far is the greatest. or "integrated circuit" if you want to get all wikipedia on me.

Last edited by steelie34 (2008-04-30 08:41:50)
Bloody hell the name escapes me now but that dam in South America which borders two countries that hate each other, I watched it on some yv programme once and I was gobsmacked. Sorry for being vague with details.
Itaipu Dam - Thats the fella.
Itaipu Dam - Thats the fella.

Last edited by 1927 (2008-04-30 08:40:19)
interesting lets see what others saysteelie34 wrote:
the microchip. why? so you could ask this questionblademaster wrote:
What, according to you, was the greatest engineering achievement in 20th century & why?
but srsly, the microchip by far is the greatest.
I cant go getting all argumentative on this as I'm sure you will soon have me out of my depth. I don't mean to rubbish your microchip which lets be honest is an amazing thing but answer me this: How many Engineers did it take to build?blademaster wrote:
interesting lets see what others saysteelie34 wrote:
the microchip. why? so you could ask this questionblademaster wrote:
What, according to you, was the greatest engineering achievement in 20th century & why?
but srsly, the microchip by far is the greatest.
the Machine Gun
wait....

wait....

Last edited by henno13 (2008-04-30 08:42:53)
do you even think that dam was possible to build without the help of computers? especially the power generating features?1927 wrote:
I cant go getting all argumentative on this as I'm sure you will soon have me out of my depth. I don't mean to rubbish your microchip which lets be honest is an amazing thing but answer me this: How many Engineers did it take to build?blademaster wrote:
interesting lets see what others saysteelie34 wrote:
the microchip. why? so you could ask this question
but srsly, the microchip by far is the greatest.
how high would you rank: the automobile or airplane since they all emerged in 20th century.
Nope I fully agree that without the computer the damn wouldn't be here but my reply was to this "Greatest Engineering Achievement" with emphisis on Engineering. If this was an Egg/Chicken question, the chip would win hands down everytime.steelie34 wrote:
do you even think that dam was possible to build without the help of computers? especially the power generating features?1927 wrote:
I cant go getting all argumentative on this as I'm sure you will soon have me out of my depth. I don't mean to rubbish your microchip which lets be honest is an amazing thing but answer me this: How many Engineers did it take to build?blademaster wrote:
interesting lets see what others say
I would say your Microchip was the greatest "Scientific" achievement EVER created other than myself (well not just me, all of us like).
That looks really dangerous, what happens if it breaks? It looks like they built a dam in the middle of a valley, and now they have a lake that is at a higher elevation than the valley floor. SAFE.1927 wrote:
Bloody hell the name escapes me now but that dam in South America which borders two countries that hate each other, I watched it on some yv programme once and I was gobsmacked. Sorry for being vague with details.
Itaipu Dam - Thats the fella.
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~dwilcox/itaipu.jpg
Thermos.
Keeps hot things hot
Keeps cold things cold
How do it know?
Keeps hot things hot
Keeps cold things cold
How do it know?
Also some may say nuke bomb, or Internet it all depends lets see what others sayblademaster wrote:
how high would you rank: the automobile or airplane since they all emerged in 20th century.
the airplane is definitely higher on the list than the auto... but neither had the revolutionary impact of the computer.blademaster wrote:
how high would you rank: the automobile or airplane since they all emerged in 20th century.
but for sake of car versus plane:
old car:

new car:

old plane:

new plane:

the technology for planes has far outpaced the development of autos.
Last edited by steelie34 (2008-04-30 08:54:23)
i tend to think of engineering in terms of "building" things, and it's pretty amazing how a chip is a built. but as far as scale, that dam is damn impressive. (i know, bad joke)1927 wrote:
Nope I fully agree that without the computer the damn wouldn't be here but my reply was to this "Greatest Engineering Achievement" with emphisis on Engineering. If this was an Egg/Chicken question, the chip would win hands down everytime.steelie34 wrote:
do you even think that dam was possible to build without the help of computers? especially the power generating features?1927 wrote:
I cant go getting all argumentative on this as I'm sure you will soon have me out of my depth. I don't mean to rubbish your microchip which lets be honest is an amazing thing but answer me this: How many Engineers did it take to build?
I would say your Microchip was the greatest "Scientific" achievement EVER created other than myself (well not just me, all of us like).
Harvesting electricity - no explanation necessary.
Last edited by kylef (2008-04-30 09:13:30)
Probably the nuclear bomb. More or less maintained a cold peace for the past 60 years where there would probably inevitably have been a protacted perpetual conventional war between the USSR and the west.
The transistor (pre-requisite to microchips)
the internal combustion engine
the internal combustion engine
Duh, this one wins by far. Built in MP3 player? Pure win!

Sorry - wrong era!steelie34 wrote:
20th century?kylef wrote:
Harvesting electricity - no explanation necessary.
"Knock out da fat!!"oChaos.Haze wrote:
Duh, this one wins by far. Built in MP3 player? Pure win!
http://blogs.creativecow.net/files/u3/iGrill.jpg
This is a tough one, and I don't have an answer right yet. I'll have to mill over it some more, until I forget about it.
Last edited by heggs (2008-04-30 11:18:41)
Remember Me As A Time Of Day
Nope. Although airplanes were invented in the very early 20th century, cars first emerged in the late 19th century. People get confused because they think Henry Ford invented the car in the early 1900's, when all he did was manufacture them on an assembly line.blademaster wrote:
how high would you rank: the automobile or airplane since they all emerged in 20th century.
Space Shuttle or the Apollo craft
Last edited by M.O.A.B (2008-04-30 11:26:22)
The laying of the first telecommunications cable from Cornwall to America (was it NY??) and transmission of the first signal through it. Has to be.