Engineering Mechanics Interview Questions
- What is the difference between statics and dynamics?
- Define force and state its units.
- What is the principle of moments?
- Explain the difference between centroid and center of gravity.
- What is Hooke’s Law?
- How do you calculate the resultant force of two or more forces acting on an object?
- Define stress and strain. What is the relationship between the two?
- Explain the difference between compression and tension.
- What is the difference between elastic and inelastic materials?
- Define torque and state its units.
- What is the law of conservation of energy?
- Explain the difference between kinetic energy and potential energy.
- What is the difference between work and power?
- Explain the concept of moment of inertia.
- What is the difference between a beam and a truss?
- Explain the difference between a pin joint and a fixed joint.
- What is the principle of virtual work?
- What is the difference between a frame and a machine?
- Explain the difference between a gear and a pulley.
- What is the difference between a worm gear and a spur gear?
- What is the difference between a scalar and a vector?
- Define displacement, velocity, and acceleration.
- What is Newton’s first law of motion?
- What is Newton’s second law of motion?
- What is Newton’s third law of motion?
- What is the difference between linear and angular motion?
- What is the difference between translational and rotational motion?
- What is the difference between static and kinetic friction?
- What is the coefficient of friction?
- What is the difference between a pulley and a block?
- Explain the concept of simple machines.
- What is the mechanical advantage of a simple machine?
- What is the difference between a wheel and an axle?
- What is the difference between a screw and an inclined plane?
- What is the difference between a wedge and a lever?
- What is the difference between a first-class, second-class, and third-class lever?
- What is the principle of work and energy?
- What is potential energy?
- What is kinetic energy?
- What is the law of conservation of momentum?
- What is the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions?
- What is the principle of impulse and momentum?
- Define impulse and state its units.
- What is the difference between a conservative and non-conservative force?
- What is the difference between a spring and a dashpot?
- What is the difference between a rigid body and a deformable body?
- Define center of mass.
- What is the difference between a free body diagram and an equilibrium equation?
- What is the difference between a moment and a couple?
- What is the difference between a beam and a column?
- What is the difference between a frame and a structure?
- What is the difference between a two-dimensional and three-dimensional analysis?
- What is the difference between a lumped and distributed system?
- Define damping ratio.
- What is the difference between a natural frequency and a resonant frequency?
- What is the difference between a mode shape and a mode frequency?
- What is the difference between a static and dynamic analysis?
- Define the difference between a design and analysis.
- What is the difference between a factor of safety and a reliability index?
- Define the difference between a deterministic and probabilistic analysis.
- What is the difference between a design and a specification?
- Define the difference between a tolerance and an allowance.
- What is the difference between a limit and a fit?
- What is the difference between a clearance and interference fit?
- What is the difference between a statistical and a deterministic distribution?
- Define probability density function.
- Define cumulative distribution function.
- What is the difference between a continuous and discrete random variable?
- What is the difference between a mean and standard deviation?
- What is the difference between a mode and median?
- What is the difference between a variance and covariance?
- Define a correlation coefficient.
- What is the difference between a hypothesis test and a confidence interval?
- What is the difference between a Type I and Type II error?
- What is the difference between a one-tailed and two-tailed test?
- Define sampling distribution.
- Define sampling error.
- What is the difference between a population and a sample?
- What is the difference between a parametric and non-parametric test?
- What is the difference between a chi-squared and t-test?
- What is the difference between a linear and logistic regression?
- What is the difference between a buckling and yielding failure?
- What is the difference between a static and dynamic load?
- What is the difference between a linear and nonlinear analysis?
- What is the difference between a deterministic and stochastic analysis?
- Define a stress-strain curve.
- What is the difference between a tensile and compressive stress?
- Define yield strength and ultimate strength.
- What is the difference between brittle and ductile materials?
- Define fracture toughness.
- What is the difference between a shear and bending stress?
- What is the difference between a normal and shear strain?
- What is the difference between a homogeneous and composite material?
- Define Poisson’s ratio.
- Define Young’s modulus.
- Define shear modulus.
- What is the difference between a material property and material behavior?
- What is the difference between a homogeneous and isotropic material?
- Define anisotropy.
- What is the difference between a linear and nonlinear material?
- Define creep.
- Define fatigue.
- What is the difference between a static and dynamic load?
- Define buckling.
- Define plastic deformation.
- What is the difference between a ductile and brittle fracture?
- Define fatigue limit.
- What is the difference between a static and dynamic load?
- Define hardness.
- What is the difference between a strain gauge and load cell?
- What is the difference between a tensile and compressive load cell?
- What is the difference between a load and stress cell?
- What is the difference between a force and torque sensor?
- Define a strain rosette.
- What is the difference between a fatigue and stress concentration factor?
- Define a fatigue crack.
- What is the difference between a fatigue crack and stress corrosion cracking?
- Define a fracture mechanics analysis.
- What is the difference between a failure mode and effect analysis and fault tree analysis?
- Define redundancy.
- What is the difference between a hazard and risk analysis?
- Define the difference between a component and system analysis.
- What is the difference between a FMEA and FMECA analysis?
- Define a reliability analysis.
- What is the difference between a reliability block diagram and a fault tree analysis?
- Define a fault tolerance analysis.
- What is the difference between a critical and non-critical component?
- Define a system safety analysis.
- What is the difference between a risk and safety assessment?
- Define a hazard and operability study.
- What is the difference between a hazard and operability study and a failure mode and effects analysis?
- Define a safety integrity level.
- What is the difference between a safety instrumented system and a process control system?
- Define a safety critical system.
- What is the difference between a safety critical and non-safety critical system?
- Define a safety critical function.
- What is the difference between a safety critical and non-safety critical function?
- Define a hazard and risk matrix.
- What is the difference between a fault tree analysis and event tree analysis?
- Define a human factors analysis.
- What is the difference between a human factors analysis and ergonomic analysis?
- Define a system engineering process.
- What is the difference between a top-down and bottom-up system engineering approach?
- Define a system requirement.
- What is the difference between a functional and non-functional requirement?
- Define a system specification.
- What is the difference between a system specification and a system requirement?
- What is the difference between a static and dynamic equilibrium?
- Define center of gravity.
- What is the difference between a moment and torque?
- Define moment of inertia.
- What is the difference between a conservative and non-conservative force?
- Define work and energy.
- What is the difference between kinetic and potential energy?
- Define power.
- What is the difference between impulse and momentum?
- Define a projectile motion.
- What is the difference between a uniform and non-uniform circular motion?
- Define simple harmonic motion.
- What is the difference between linear and angular momentum?
- Define angular velocity.
- What is the difference between a rigid and deformable body?
- Define translational and rotational motion.
- What is the difference between a kinematic and kinetic analysis?
- Define force system.
- What is the difference between a concurrent and non-concurrent force system?
- Define resultant force.
- What is the difference between a free body diagram and a shear and moment diagram?
- Define friction.
- What is the difference between static and dynamic friction?
- Define coefficient of friction.
- What is the difference between a rolling and sliding friction?
- Define a moment about an axis.
- What is the difference between a shear and bending moment?
- Define section modulus.
- What is the difference between a pure bending and combined bending and axial loading?
- Define shear center.
- What is the difference between a beam and a column?
- Define deflection.
- What is the difference between a statically determinate and indeterminate structure?
- Define a truss.
- What is the difference between a statically determinate and indeterminate truss?
- Define a frame.
- What is the difference between a statically determinate and indeterminate frame?
- Define a cable.
- What is the difference between a flexible and rigid cable?