People often complain that there is no "science" behind writing software, so therefore it is not an engineering discipline. Articles like this one do a good job showing that the other disciplines aren't nearly as cut and dry as software engineers often think.<p>Mechanical and civil engineers can lean on equations to make sure that the part will handle expected loads - but that is just step 1 of many. It's effectively the equivalent of "will it compile". After that step are many open questions around maintainability, reliability, costs, etc that have even more unknowns than the average software project. Engineering is an art based in science, no matter what the discipline.
<i>Eventually she found more than 20 accidents, which killed nearly 30 people, all involving Ford Explorers riding on Firestone tires.</i><p>Only, as it turns out, it wasn't just Ford Explorers. GM vehicles on the same tires also had tread separations. Explorers running on Goodyear tires didn't have the problem.<p>For a good account of what went on inside Ford during the Wilderness AT crisis, read Jason Vines' <i>What did Jesus drive?</i><p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OQOWBCG" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OQOWBCG</a>
During WW2, aircraft engine manufacturers would have a row of engines on test stands running at full power continuously until they broke. Then the engineers would examine the part that broke, and redesign it. Then continue the test.<p>This resulted in vastly improved engine reliability.
Note that modern racing bicycles are actually generally over engineered. The UCI established a 6.8 kg weight limit in 1999 and haven't updated it since, despite dramatic advances in carbon fibre engineering.<p>These days many bikes carry ballast to bring them up to the limit.
This article basically tells us to follow these two links<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weibull_distribution" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weibull_distribution</a><p><a href="http://www.vextec.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.vextec.com</a>
Reliability theory can be a very useful way to look at many of these things.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_theory" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_theory</a>
I'm afraid of flying and one reason is that I can't get out of my head that things break and that there are so many things that can break in an airplane. Please tell me I'm wrong.