Mechanics and Materials I

This is where mechanical engineering stops being abstract physics and becomes the actual job: figuring out whether a beam, shaft, or bolted joint will hold under real loads, and by how much it will deform before it does. You'll spend the semester drawing free-body diagrams, then translating those forces into internal stresses and strains through axial, torsional, and bending analysis, backed by two labs and weekly problem sets out of Hibbeler. It's the bridge between Physics I and everything downstream — machine design, dynamics, finite elements — so the fluency you build here in shear/moment diagrams and elastic behavior is something you'll lean on for the rest of the degree.