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Engineering ScienceQ&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every Scotland Engineering Science syllabus dot point. Each question and answer is drawn directly from our worked dot-point page, so you can scan key concepts before opening the long-form answer.
Area 2: Electronics and control
- Modelling electronic devices with the input, process and output system model, and distinguishing analogue from digital signals.3Q&A pairs
- Ohm's law and the power relationships, and analysing series and parallel resistor networks for current, voltage, resistance and power.3Q&A pairs
- The logic gates AND, OR, NOT, NAND and NOR with their truth tables, and analysing combinational logic circuits that combine several gates.3Q&A pairs
- The operational amplifier as an inverting amplifier with gain set by feedback resistors, as a difference amplifier, and as a comparator producing a switching output.3Q&A pairs
- Output devices such as LEDs, buzzers, motors and solenoids, interfacing them to a control circuit, and calculating the series resistor needed to protect an LED.3Q&A pairs
- The potential divider relationship and its use with input transducers such as the thermistor and the light-dependent resistor to produce a sensing voltage.3Q&A pairs
- The transistor as an electronic switch driven by a small input signal, used to control output devices, with a diode to protect against the back-emf of inductive loads.3Q&A pairs
Area 1: Engineering contexts and challenges
- Renewable and non-renewable energy sources, energy conversion in engineered systems, and calculating efficiency as the ratio of useful output to total input.3Q&A pairs
- The main branches of engineering and how they interact, and the stages of the engineering design process from specification to evaluation.3Q&A pairs
- The social, economic and environmental impact of engineering, sustainability and life-cycle thinking, and the global challenges that drive emerging technologies.3Q&A pairs
- The universal system model of input, process and output, the use of block diagrams to represent systems and sub-systems, and the difference between open-loop and closed-loop control with feedback.3Q&A pairs
- An overview of the course assignment: an open-ended engineering problem solved by applying knowledge from across the course, with a report assessing analysis, simulation or construction, and evaluation.3Q&A pairs
Area 3: Mechanisms and structures
- Belt, chain and pulley drive systems and their speed ratio, the concept of torque, and the power transmitted by a rotating shaft.3Q&A pairs
- Newton's second law relating resultant force, mass and acceleration, the effect of friction, and calculating work done and power.3Q&A pairs
- The conditions for static equilibrium, the principle of moments, and finding the support reactions of a simply supported loaded beam.3Q&A pairs
- Members in tension (ties) and compression (struts), and finding the internal forces in a pin-jointed framework by resolving forces at a joint in equilibrium.3Q&A pairs
- Direct stress and strain, Young's modulus relating them, the factor of safety, and selecting materials by their mechanical properties.3Q&A pairs
- Levers and gear systems, calculating mechanical advantage, velocity ratio and efficiency, and the gear ratio of meshing gears.3Q&A pairs