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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
- Analogue electronics: voltage, current and resistance, Ohm's law, electrical power, and combining resistors in series and in parallel.3Q&A pairs
- Combinational logic: combining gates to meet a control requirement, completing the truth table of a combined circuit, NAND and NOR gates, and reading a Boolean expression.3Q&A pairs
- Digital logic gates (AND, OR, NOT) and their truth tables, including recognising gate symbols and completing a truth table for a single gate.3Q&A pairs
- Programmable control: the microcontroller as a programmable process sub-system and the use of flowcharts with inputs, decisions, outputs and loops to control a system.3Q&A pairs
- The operational amplifier as a comparator and as an inverting amplifier, including calculating the voltage gain and output voltage of an inverting amplifier.3Q&A pairs
- Output devices and transistor switching: common output transducers and using a transistor as an electronic switch driven by a sensing circuit, including a protective diode.3Q&A pairs
- Universal systems diagrams: representing an electronic or control system as input, process and output sub-systems using block diagrams.6Q&A pairs
- The voltage divider and input transducers: calculating the output voltage of a divider and using the LDR and thermistor to make light- and temperature-sensing circuits.3Q&A pairs
Area 1: Engineering contexts and challenges
- Renewable and non-renewable energy sources, energy transformations in engineering systems, and the conservation of energy.3Q&A pairs
- The role of engineering and the main engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, electronic, civil, structural, chemical) and how they contribute to products and systems.3Q&A pairs
- The impact of engineering achievements on society and the environment, and the meaning of sustainability in engineering design.3Q&A pairs
- Overview of the National 5 Engineering Science course assessment: the question paper and the assignment, and the design-and-build skills the assignment rewards.3Q&A pairs
Area 3: Mechanisms and structures
- Forces, the difference between mass and weight, the weight relationship W equals mg, and the force-mass-acceleration relationship F equals ma.3Q&A pairs
- Gear systems and the gear ratio, calculating output speed from the gear ratio, and how gearing trades speed for torque.3Q&A pairs
- Levers and the moment of a force, calculating a moment, and applying the principle of moments to a balanced lever.3Q&A pairs
- Properties of engineering materials and material selection: the main mechanical properties, the main groups of materials, and choosing a material to suit a structural job.3Q&A pairs
- Mechanical advantage, velocity ratio and efficiency of a mechanism, including calculating each and relating efficiency to wasted energy.3Q&A pairs
- Mechanisms and drive systems: the four types of motion, belt and chain drives, and calculating the velocity ratio and output speed of a pulley drive.3Q&A pairs
- Pressure as force per unit area, the relationship P equals F over A, and how a pneumatic cylinder uses air pressure to produce an output force.3Q&A pairs
- Structures: tension and compression in members (ties and struts), the equilibrium of a beam, and using the principle of moments to find the support reactions.3Q&A pairs
- Work done by a force, mechanical power as work done per second, and the relationships work equals force times distance and power equals work over time.3Q&A pairs