Ask an Engineer

Answers to engineering’s persistent questions.

Back in 2008, before Facebook was big and the word “tweet” referred to anything but a bird sound, we started Ask an Engineer. The idea was simple: people could ask MIT questions, and we would answer them.

Once the answer to a clue in the New York Times Saturday crossword puzzle, Ask an Engineer seeks to unravel the mysteries of engineering — from the mundane to the highly complex — for questions asked in a relatively pithy way.

We are not currently publishing new entries to Ask an Engineer, but that doesn’t mean we’ve lost interest in questions (especially the ones asked by kids). If you’ve got one we haven’t answered (see below), send us an email: askanengineer@mit.edu.