Just kidding...
And, no, I'm not talking about that "spark" between you and that special someone. I'm talking about that raw flow of electrons that's oh so important to the world today. Where did that all begin?
William Gilbert, an astronomer, is generally considered the first electrical engineer because of his invention of the first electroscope, a device he called the versorium, all the way back in 1600. It was pretty simple, actually, a needle that detected static charges.
So, these days, a good education is the key to becoming an electrical engineer. You just go and get a degree in it. Education is never a bad thing. However, it's not a field that's limited to your education. There is still plenty we don't know, especially considering that we can't reproduce many of the things we know Tesla could do and have absolutely no idea about some of the things he claimed to be able to do. Heck, for all we know, he and his buddy Mark Twain were zipping around in a time machine.
The point is this, almost everything you own uses electricity. Even some of the books. Electrical engineering is not a static field (heh heh, get it?). It's definitely the kind of place where bright people with an eye to the future and all of the possibilities therein would want to be. So, yes, go to school, get a degree, learn all you can, but, then, get out there and experiment. Electrical engineering is wide and diverse field.
I know nothing about electrical engineering...as long as all my plugged in stuff works, all is good.
ReplyDeleteYou make it sound interesting!
ReplyDeleteKeep Calm and A-Z
An A-Z of learning English
Round the world from A to Z
I like the puns :) Electricity is pretty cool--one of the things we surely take for granted. I ask my mom what she wants for her birthday every year, and every year she says a Tesla coil.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if I go back to school and get an engineering degree I could actually build her one, who need English anyways?
Nice post! Enjoyed the read.
I heard that Edison had Tesla's lab raided. Maybe it's hype, but I think we've been lacking in the electricity department since we've lacked flying cars and floating orbs that catch bullets.
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated by Tesla and started researching him for an anthology I was thinking of submitting to. I got too caught up in reading about his brief stint here in Colorado Springs (where he "remote" lit lightbulbs with no wires). So, yeah, I obviously didn't want to write that story so much (I really didn't--I was trying to attempt something new, and just wasn't into it).
ReplyDeleteShannon at The Warrior Muse
There is just something I don't like about burning hair and skin I think I'll pass on electrical engineering. :) Great post though!
ReplyDeleteYou are just full of puns today!
ReplyDeleteI'll buy that Tesla had a time machine.
Now I have a song from School House Rocks in my head. But it's a good one, so that's cool.
ReplyDeleteMy significant other's grandfather was an electrical engineer.
Makes me want to shift to another course.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,Miss Uncertain---sidetracked
Or maybe Tesla was a visitor from space!! I have friends who theorise all inventions are prompted by alien visitors.
ReplyDeleteJO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE
Tesla was way cooler than Edison. My dad's an electrical engineer so I've received many a lecture on this subject.
ReplyDeleteI grew up at a time when we often used oil lanterns and candles to 'save electricity.' It's not that I'm that old, it's just that a grew up on a farm in Africa. -Belinda (A -Z participant).
ReplyDeleteMy son is in the high school robotics club and worked on the electrical wiring side of the project this year. He's either going to study electrical engineering or mechanical engineering in college, but I think they sort of go together. Actually, he wants to design locomotive engines, since that's his passion. Yeah.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I love all the puns in this!
ReplyDeleteMy co-worker (a quadriplegic) is an electrical engineer. I've learned quite a bit from him in constructing circuit boards for A.T.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be a certain kind of person to be any type of engineer. I'm an architect and work with a lot engineers, civil, structural, electrical, etc. They are the oddest people on the planet. Their brains work far differently than the rest of us. Talk about strange pegs! Boy, could I tell you some stories.
ReplyDeleteI tried to learn about electricity once . . . I got about 1.5 chapters into a textbook before giving up. It's so complicated and there are so many different units.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is an electrical engineer - great brain! Love watching him think. It's a great profession if you are inclined to think that way!
ReplyDeleteEve: I know enough about it to be scared of playing with electricity.
ReplyDeleteDuncan: Being able to shoot lightning is pretty interesting!
Jean: Tesla coils are pretty cool. I've never wanted to own one, but I do like messing with them when I happen across them out in the wild.
And thank you :)
Shockgrubz: Well, we do actually have flying cars. I did a piece on that for last year's a-to-z. They're just not legal yet.
Shannon: Tesla is pretty fascinating. he had so much stuff going on that no one really knows about. And the remote light bulbs... why can't we do that?
G_G: It's the teeth welding that worries me.
Alex: I would, too.
Science is cool. If it didn't have so much math in it, I would have gone into science. And Tesla ... Tesla is as mysterious and fun to me as the thought of Atlantis. A part of me hopes the secrets are never found, but wouldn't it be cool to know them!
ReplyDeleteM.J.: I drawing a blank on the song. But, now, I have the conjunction one in my head. Thanks.
ReplyDeletemiss uncertain: I can understand that.
Jo: I hadn't thought of that.
S.L.: That's because Edison just took other people's ideas. And was more concerned with money than the science.
myriteofpassage: My grandparents used that phrase a lot. I find it kind of amusing now.
L.G.: I think it's just that electrical engineering goes with just about everything.
Cassie: Thanks!
Michael: Circuit boards are pretty cool.
Nancy: I bet you could. I wonder if it has anything to do with getting shocked?
TGE: It is pretty complicated. Or it can be, at any rate.
Donna: Well, I think I'm a bit old to pick that up at this point. And there would be the problem of really only being interested in making robots.
Carrie: Science is cool.
I do want to know his secrets, especially if he had a time machine.
I might not want to become one myself, but I like reading about electrical engineers, believe or not. Awesome post!
ReplyDeleteJessica @ Visions of Other Worlds
Twitter: @jmarcarelli, #atozchallenge
Perhaps the only disadvantage to the career is having to sit through intro level physics classes. Oh, and calculus.
ReplyDeleteRecently saw a couple of old biographical movies about Edison. They were pretty good, but I really want to see one about Tesla. The only thing I've seen so far is The Prestige and it didn't really tell all that much about Tesla.
ReplyDeleteLee
A Faraway View
An A to Z Co-host blog
Wait, I want to know about this longest lightning bolt. How are you going to tease that and then not explain it?! It's like Chekov's gun became a lightning bolt!
ReplyDeleteF better be for "For Heaven's Sake Here Is The Tesla Lightning Bolt Story."
I'm not really a science brain, but I would love to learn more about all this stuff and really challenge myself!
ReplyDeleteJessica: I can believe that. There's some awesome stuff out there.
ReplyDeleteJeanne: Yeah, I got kinda burned out on that stuff. heh
Lee: But were they about the idealized (capitalist) Edison the real Edison?
Briane: Well, as you can now see, "F" is not about the lightning bolt. However, Tesla was able to produce artificial bolts that were 135' long, something that has never been done since.
Trisha: Well, then, you should. Start with Tesla!
Of course it was the idealized Edison in these films starring Mickey Rooney as young Edison and Spencer Tracy as the older man. It was Hollywood all the way. There were some stories that were highly fictionalized, but there was enough truth to make them pretty good. Not documentaries, but fairly decent movie industry biopics.
ReplyDeleteLee
A Faraway View
An A to Z Co-host blog
Lee: I think I've actually seen that one with Mickey Rooney. My problem with those at this point is that they show Edison has a kind of scientific genius, and he really wasn't. What he was really good at was putting real genius to work for him.
ReplyDeleteIn Young Tom Edison I felt there was greater emphasis on his entrepreneurial genius. The crazy part that was the real stretch was when he saved the oncoming train from going over the collapsed bridge by tooting out Morse code warnings from the opposing locomotive. I was going along with the film until they got to that unbelievable part. Still the film was fun and I've always been a Mickey Rooney fan.
ReplyDeleteLee
A Faraway View
An A to Z Co-host blog
Lee: My mom was a Mickey Rooney fan, and she instilled it in me at a young age.
ReplyDeleteAlso not for me... As I age I think I increasingly find hands on sorts of occupations less and less intriguing. Especially anything involving electricity... although my neighbor was an electrical engineer for 40 years and he says he still doesn't know how to wire the lighting in his house. He said he spent his career making schematics.
ReplyDeleteRusty: I've had enough brushes with electricity to know I don't want to play with it.
ReplyDeleteMy degree is in Computer Engineering, which is half software, half electrical! Cool post! :)
ReplyDelete#atozchallenge, Kristen's blog: kristenhead.blogspot.com
Kristen: Does that mean you're going to come fix my computer whenever I have a problem with it?
ReplyDelete