Engineering Vocabulary

1.  Air resistance--the opposing force created when an object moves through 
the air (Earth's atmosphere); a specific type of drag.
2.  Atmosphere--The gases that surround a planet or other celestial body.
3.  Canopy--The top part of the parachute.  The part that fills with air.
4.  Diameter--the distance across a circle, passing through the center.
5.  Drag--the opposing force created when an object moves through an 
atmosphere.
6.  Feature--A characteristic
7.  Gaseous--made of gases.
8.  Load--the mass attached to the bottom of a parachute.
9.  Parachute--a device designed to slow the speed of a falling object.
10. Radius--a straight line from the center of a circle to any point on its 
edge.
11. Solar System--the Sun along with all of the celestial bodies that orbit 
around it, including planets, moons, ateroids, etc.
12. Aerospace Engineer--an engineer who designs objects that go into space, 
as well as other crafts that fly, such as airplanes.
13.  Constraint--a restriction or limit placed on a designed solution or the 
design process itself.  For example, time, money, and materials are all 
constraints.
14.  Design-- a plan for how to build a solution to a problem.
15.  Engineer/Engineering--a person who uses his or her creativity and 
understanding of materials, tools, mathematics, and science to design things 
that solve problems.
16.  Engineering Design Process--the five steps that engineers use to design 
something to solve a problem, to: ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve.
17.  Goal--the ideal solution for which people aim when designing a 
technology.
18.  Material--the substance(s) from which an object is or can be made.
19.  Model--a representation of design, usually built to scale.
20.  Problem--in engineering, a need or desire that motivates the creation of 
a technology.
21.  Property--a characteristic of a material, such as how it looks and feels 
and how it behaves in different conditions.
22.  Redesign--to change or improve one or more aspects of a technology, such 
as its cost, efficiency, looks, or parts.
23.  Solution--an answer, design, or technology that solves a problem.
24.  Technology--any thing or process that people create and use to solve a 
problem.  
25.  Test--a way to measure the success of a solution or part of a solution 
to an engineering problem; a way of trying ideas to see how well they work.  
For example, testing the strength of a material or the accuracy of an idea.
26.  Spacecraft--a vehicle designed for travel outside of the Earth's 
atmosphere.
27.  Speed--the measure of how fast something is moving.
28.  Suspension line--the ropes connecting the canopy of a parachute to its 
load.