The Engineering Purity Test

The Engineering Purity Test
So my definition of 'engineer' is perhaps a little different from the book definition. Want to see if you meet my idea of a real engineer? Go for it...

Special thanks to The Armory for supplying the method of scoring.

Back to my homepage.

Part 1: Education

Are you currently attending/have you graduated from an engineering school?
...Is/was it Georgia Tech, CalTech, or MIT?
...Are/were you there to get your bachelor in a field of engineering?
...Your Master's?
...Ph.D.? (Get a life! Move on! Leave college! There's a great big world out there!)
Do you ever find yourself getting angry at management/liberal arts majors because their degrees have no redeeming value to society?
Do you expect to make at LEAST $50k when you graduate college? (If you've already graduated, then did you?)
Do/did you find fluid dynamics, differential equations, or other "pure science" or math courses at least mildly interesting?
...Enough so that you take/took extra math/science courses as electives?
Have you NOT had a liberal arts/humanities course since your freshman year, when you got them all out of the way?
Do you consider graduating inside of five years with a bachelor's degree going "pretty fast"?
Ever been a TA in an engineering/pure science/math course?
...Did it make you feel dirty?
Ever pull an all nighter?
...Ever pull more than two in a row?

Part 2: Living the Life

...A calculator?
...A graphing calculator?
...A Swiss Army Knife/Gerber multitool/Leatherman/any other all-in-one tool?
...A pocketknife?
...Graph paper?
...Drafting tools?
...A multi-meter?
...Duct tape?

...A soldering iron?
......Do you own one?
...A multi-meter?
......Do you own one?
...A graphing calculator?
......Do you own one?
...Any kind of welding rig?
......Do you own one?
...An oscilliscope?
......Do you own one?
...More tools than Norm Abrams (of This Old House fame) can use correctly?
......Does your workshop put his to shame?
Are at least 75% of your friends engineers?
Do you find jokes about physics/math/etc. to be funny?
Do you often work Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle (or other scientific/mathematic principles) into conversation?
...Do you do it without having to try?
Are you a FIRM believer in Murphy's Law (That which can go wrong, will.)?
Do you believe that you can fix ANYTHING with a little copper wire, some duct tape, and some WD-40?
Were your Legos your favorite toy when you were young?

Part 3: Abject Destruction (because a bored engineer is the second most dangerous person in the world...right behind a bored politician)

Ever taken apart a piece of electronic equipment that stopped working?
...Were you not even pretending to be trying to fix it, but were in it for the carnage alone?
Have you ever thrown an object that weighs more then half a pound off of a two-story building (or taller) just to see it hit the ground?
...Four or more stories?
...Ten or more?
...Was it not strictly legal for you to be on the top of wherever you were at the time?
Do you drink alcoholic beverages?
...Do you look upon beer as 'inefficient'?
...Do you drink grain alcohol because it IS efficient?

Part 4:Computers

Do you own a computer?
...Did you build it yourself?
...If you bought it pre-built, did you take it apart immediately upon recieving it?
...Do you do all your own upgrades yourself?
...Does the inside of your computer have duct or electrical tape holding things together?
......What about super glue?
......Paper wadding to reduce vibration?
Is your processor overclocked?
...Did you have to attach a centrifugal blower to pull it off?
...What about your video card, is it overclocked too?
Do you use Linux or another open source operating system JUST so you can tinker?