On the role of engineering in mathematical development

Abstract

It is customary for engineering syllabuses to include a substantial amount of mathematics, a fact traditionally justified through their usefulness in the analysis and resolution of many technological problems. In other words, usually the role of mathematics in engineering is emphasized. Nevertheless, the opposite viewpoint could be considered as well: What, if any, is the role of engineering in mathematics? This is a less popular standpoint, and we shall show in this paper that there exist engineering ancestors in some very pure mathematics, and that interrelation is a constant between technological and scientific areas. In particular, we track the ancestors of fractal geometry and chaos up to the development of steam technologies in the 18th century.