Week 1 · Front Office

What Is Mechanical Engineering?

You're not here to memorize formulas. You're here to figure out how the physical world works — and eventually, how to build things that survive it. Mechanical engineers design everything that moves, carries load, gets hot, flows, or wears out: bikes, rockets, prosthetic hands, wind turbines, door hinges, roller coasters. If it has parts and physics, a mechanical engineer probably touched it. This week you earn access to the Front Office. Boss fight at the end: prove you can think before you calculate.

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Lessons

What Mechanical Engineers Actually Do
~20 min
→
Fermi Estimation — Thinking Before Calculating
~25 min
→
Units — The Language Nobody Gets to Skip
~20 min
→
Safety & Failure Modes
~25 min
→

Boss fight

Boss: Guess the Weight

Learning objectives

Define mechanical engineering in plain language
Use estimation to make defensible guesses about real-world quantities
Convert between common units without panic
Identify failure modes before building
Explain why engineers care about safety and constraints