Science and Engineering: What’s the Difference?

The difference between Science and Engineering: quote by Theodore von Kármán "Scientists discover the world that exists; Engineers create the world that never was."

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People often ask, "What's the difference between science and engineering?" Having studied engineering but always loved science, I've come across a few perspectives I find useful to understand the two.

In England at least, studying science usually comes first. In fact, you can't really study engineering until you head off to University. So discussing science and engineering together never came up when I was at school. Engineering seemed to be machines and buildings and projects and design and technology, and science seemed to be everything else. But what really makes science science and engineering engineering?

Science vs Engineering: Four perspectives

Here are four simple ways people have described science and engineering.

Theodore Von Kármán on Scientists and Engineers

Aerospace engineer Theodore Von Kármán said:

Scientists discover the world that exists; Engineers create the world that never was.

— Theodore Von Kármán

Richard Hamming on Science and Engineering

Bell Labs engineer Richard Hamming, in his book The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn , captured the difference this way:

"In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it.

In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it."

— Richard Hamming

Hamming also points out that there's a lot of science in engineering and a lot of engineering in science: "Much of present science rests on engineering tools, and as time goes on, engineering seems to involve more and more of the science part."

For example, dealing with huge amounts of data, of the sort generated by weather sensors or particle colliders, requires exceptional engineering techniques. And engineering new displays or ever smaller processing chips requires a lot of scientific knowledge. The two are intertwined: science enables engineering to push forward, and engineering opens new doors for science.

Richard Feynman on Computer Science

Physicist Richard Feynman, in a talk on quantum computers at Bell Labs (video excerpt ), said:

"I don't believe in Computer Science. To me, science is the study of the behavior of nature. And engineering or applied things is the behavior of things we make.

You need to know how Nature works in order to make the things, and so you use science in engineering, but you're doing it for a human purpose."

— Richard Feynman

Mythbusters' Adam Savage on Science vs Screwing Around

Adam Savage, Mythbusters host, shared:

"Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down."

Adam said that the quote was actually from the ballistics expert on a shoot, Alex Jason. It doesn’t quite get to the heart of science versus engineering, but it’s a great reminder of good practice.

And finally, my own phrasing in the first draft for the sketch used:

Science: Study of the world
Engineering: Doing things with what we've learned about the world

So while there probably isn't a single neat answer to the question of what’s the difference between science and engineering, maybe these give some food for thought.

If you know of other interesting framings for science and engineering, please let me know.

Related Ideas to Science and Engineering

Also see:

The Feynman Learning Technique
Data Information Knowledge Wisdom
Bloom's Taxonomy for learning
Hitched to Everything Else in the Universe
You Get What You Measure - Richard Hamming
What Gets Measured Gets Better - Richard Hamming
Darwin's 5 Principles of Natural Selection
Accuracy and Precision are not the same thing
Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis a progression of ideas
Unknown unknowns
Greeble (I learned from Adam Savage)

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He who knows not, and knows he knows not, is simple; teach him. He who knows, and knows not he knows, is asleep; awaken him. He who knows, and knows he knows, is wise; follow him. Note that, like most interpretations of the Awareness/Knowledge-understanding framework, Unknown Knowns is interpreted as things you know but don't know you know. These might be implicit knowledge that you are yet to make a connection with. Quotes and Ideas Relating to Unknown Unknowns We have a host of sayings and thoughts that relate to this. Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Black Swan events: if every swan you've ever seen is white, it's easy to assume that all swans are white, but the next one you see could be black. The Lucretius problem, also from Taleb: We tend to believe the biggest event we've seen is the biggest that could happen. For example, we test our financial models against the most significant market crashes, but each was bigger than any that had hit before. In theory, practice is the same as theory, but not in practice. No plan survives contact with the enemy — from Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known : but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge : it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. — Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871) introduction Whatever our plans, or what we think we know, or even what we think we know we don't know, we must adapt to succeed. Related Ideas to Unknown Unknowns Unknown unknowns evidently weigh heavily on me, as I seem to have drawn many more related ideas: Black Swan events The Lucretius Problem The Johari Window — for self-knowledge The Conscious Competence framework In theory, practice is the same as theory, but not in practice VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity OODA Loop - Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, Repeat On mistakes Hindsight bias — everything is obvious after the fact Physics Envy Hofstadter's Law The Cobra Effect The Law of Unintended Consequences Do a 2x2 Matrix Kitchen Table Survival SkillsIn a 2002 Pentagon briefing, then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously said: "Reports that say something hasn't happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones." It wasn't typical media material. It even won Rumsfeld the "Foot in Mouth" award from the Plain English Campaign in 2003. But the idea of unknown unknowns has endured. Awareness—Understanding examples When placed in a 2x2, somewhat like I have done, some people have referred to it as the Rumsfeld Matrix (although he didn't invent it), or the Awareness—Understanding Matrix. I prefer diving straight into Unknown Unknowns as they're the crux of it. For example: Say you find out you're going to have a baby. There's a lot you know and a lot you know you don't: Unknown Knowns — things you know that people know about being a parent and having a baby, but you just don't know them yet. Doing your research and homework transforms these into Known Knowns. Known Knowns are the things you already know (or just learned) you'll need to do when you're a parent. Your baby will need feeding and changing, clothes, a place to sleep etc. You plan for these, you buy clothes, a crib, and learn about breastfeeding or the bottle. Known Unknowns — Things like the baby's gender, or whether they'll arrive early or late. You know you don't know these yet, but you can make a plan either way. Finally, there are Unknown Unknowns — which, in this case, could be that, despite all your plans, you find yourself with twins. Or, say you plan to start a café: Unknown Knowns What you know is knowable, but you don't know it, yet You can find data on the market, the costs, and potential customers. These things can be known through research—others know them—but you didn't know them. Known Knowns What you know you know Your costs, your product, your route to market, everything you learned in your research. You make your plan around these. Known Unknowns What you know you don't know How people will respond to your product, how fast sales will be, and whether your rent will change. Unknown Unknowns What you didn't know you didn't know Just as you launch your café, Starbucks moves in next door, or we hit a global pandemic. It's what you don't know, that you don't know, that gets you. After all, if you knew it, you'd have prepared for it. He Who Knows There's a well-known saying called "He who knows" which relates to Unknown Unknowns: He who knows not, and knows not he knows not, is a fool; shun him. He who knows not, and knows he knows not, is simple; teach him. He who knows, and knows not he knows, is asleep; awaken him. He who knows, and knows he knows, is wise; follow him. Note that, like most interpretations of the Awareness/Knowledge-understanding framework, Unknown Knowns is interpreted as things you know but don't know you know. These might be implicit knowledge that you are yet to make a connection with. Quotes and Ideas Relating to Unknown Unknowns We have a host of sayings and thoughts that relate to this. Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Black Swan events: if every swan you've ever seen is white, it's easy to assume that all swans are white, but the next one you see could be black. The Lucretius problem, also from Taleb: We tend to believe the biggest event we've seen is the biggest that could happen. For example, we test our financial models against the most significant market crashes, but each was bigger than any that had hit before. In theory, practice is the same as theory, but not in practice. No plan survives contact with the enemy — from Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known : but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge : it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. — Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871) introduction Whatever our plans, or what we think we know, or even what we think we know we don't know, we must adapt to succeed. Related Ideas to Unknown Unknowns Unknown unknowns evidently weigh heavily on me, as I seem to have drawn many more related ideas: Black Swan events The Lucretius Problem The Johari Window — for self-knowledge The Conscious Competence framework In theory, practice is the same as theory, but not in practice VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity OODA Loop - Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, Repeat On mistakes Hindsight bias — everything is obvious after the fact Physics Envy Hofstadter's Law The Cobra Effect The Law of Unintended Consequences Do a 2x2 Matrix Kitchen Table Survival Skills

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