The McMaster-Carr Kingdom

When your thermodynamics professor said "real-world applications," this probably wasn't what they meant. Someone actually calculated the carbon footprint of a 15-minute shower encounter with frightening precision. From water consumption to energy expenditure to CO₂ emissions—proof that engineers can turn literally anything into a homework problem. Climate scientists take note: we've identified a previously undocumented source of greenhouse gases. Next time someone asks "was it hot?" they can respond with "approximately 5.25 kWh worth."

Every engineering department has that one person who builds unnecessarily complex contraptions just because they can. The line between "technical achievement" and "why would you waste time on that?" is razor thin. Engineers live by the sacred creed: if it's stupid but works, it's still probably a fire hazard waiting for safety inspection. The real engineering challenge isn't solving problems—it's knowing which problems are worth solving before you've spent 37 hours building a robotic arm to scratch your back.

Engineers spent decades perfecting the aerodynamic football (Cd = 0.85), only to be humiliated by the computational fluid dynamics of a cow (Cd = 0.5). That's right—a literal farm animal is more aerodynamic than the object specifically designed to fly through air. Next time your quarterback makes a bad throw, remind them they'd have better luck hurling livestock. The drag coefficient doesn't lie, people. This is why I never trust sports equipment over barnyard animals when designing my next supersonic vehicle.

The generational science education pipeline in one perfect meme! From sitting cross-legged in front of educational TV shows as kids to having our minds blown by YouTube science channels as adults. That moment when you realize you've graduated from "haha spinning Earth go brrr" to "but what would happen if I yeeted sand into a jet engine?" Pure intellectual evolution right there. The beauty of science communication is that the questions get weirder but our childlike curiosity never changes!

Remember when basic algebra felt like stepping on a rake? Fast forward to engineering school, where you're parkour-ing through a mathematical obstacle course with differential equations tripping you on the stairs, Laplace transforms knocking you off ledges, and calculus waiting to clothesline you around every corner. Meanwhile, that same basic algebra is just chilling at the bottom like "remember when you thought I was hard?" Engineering students don't need a gym membership—dodging mathematical concepts while crying inside provides all the cardio they need.

The ultimate electrical engineering cult. Buddhist monks chanting "Ohm" to a giant resistor while the banner reads "JOIN THE RESISTANCE." It's the perfect circuit for enlightenment - low current, high spiritual impedance. Somewhere, Georg Ohm is either laughing or filing a copyright claim from the afterlife.