Mechanical Design: Synthesis versus Analysis

There are two completely different aspects of the study of mechanical systems: design and analysis. The concept embodied in the word design might be more properly termed synthesis, the process of contriving a scheme or a device for accomplishing a given purpose. Design is the process of developing the sizes, shapes, material compositions, types and arrangements of parts, and manufacturing processes so that the final system will perform a prescribed task. Although there are many phases of the design process that can be approached in a well-ordered scientific manner, the process is, by its very nature, as much an art as a science. It calls for imagination, intuition, creativity, judgment, and experience. The role of science in the design process can be viewed as providing tools to be used as the designer practices this art. Computer programs and computations that allow a designer to simulate a system and evaluate its potential performance play an important role in helping the designer practice the art. This is why scientific techniques such as the matrix methods discussed in this text play such an important role in dealing with the design of three-dimensional mechanisms and multibody systems.