[DampRobot]

I'd like to use this excellent thread to talk about one of the ideas that most sticks with me from growing up with a professor of physics while doing engineering work for my FRC team. Here's what I understand to be true about the difference between science and engineering.

Science is primarily about being creative, and trying new things out. Sure, scientists do stand on the shoulders of giants, and try to replicate others' results, but what scientists are remembered for isn't whether or not they were really good at doing something that someone else already did. They're remembered for new results, new connections, and new theories. The job of scientists really begins and ends with creativity. Hardly anyone remembers who experimentally verified special relativity. Everyone remembers Einstein.

Engineers, on the other hand, aren't generally judged by whether or not why're being creative. They're judged by the quality of a solution they come up with, whether they designed it from scratch or copied if out of an issue of popular mechanics. Engineers are renowned for what they end up creating, and not it's novelty. Van Braun didn't design the first rocket, he "merely" managed to put together a remarkably effective solution to a very difficult problem in the Saturn V. Steve Jobs didn't invent the smartphone, or the touchscreen. He "merely" put it together really well. Engineering is about solutions, not creativity.