🎲Wild Card Wednesday
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Words that show up in everyday engineering and almost nobody defines correctly when asked.
Term 1: Tribology
Wild CardThe science of friction, lubrication, and wear between surfaces in relative motion. Anything that slides against anything else — bearings, brake pads, engine cylinders, hip implants, the spline on a drive shaft — falls under tribology. It is its own field, has its own journals, and is the reason a tractor's CV joint costs what it does.
Why it matters: When a test fixture fails in production, nine times out of ten the root cause is tribological, not structural.
Term 2: Hysteresis
Wild CardWhen a system's output depends not only on its current input but also on the history of inputs. Pull a magnet through a coil one direction and back — the magnetization curve doesn't retrace itself. Same thing in rubber under cyclic load, in thermostats, in op-amp Schmitt triggers. The lag between input and output is the hysteresis, and it costs energy.
Why it matters: Hysteresis losses are why your phone gets warm and why core losses are spec'd on every transformer.
Term 3: Spallation
Wild CardFragmentation of a material when a compressive stress wave reflects off a free surface and becomes tensile. The wave pulls the back of the material apart from the inside. Common in armor under impact, in turbine blades under thermal shock, and at every reactor fuel cladding boundary you'd hope it didn't happen.
Why it matters: If you've ever seen a chunk fly off the back of armor plate during a ballistic test, that was spallation — and it's why composite armor uses fibrous backing layers.
📍 Huntsville Pulse
- •Makers Local 256 is hosting a CNC and 3D-printing open night this Thursday. Walk-ins welcome; no member fee for first visit.
- •Local AIAA chapter is taking nominations for the annual Engineer of the Year award. Self-nominations accepted.
- •UAH PE Exam Review course registration is open for fall. Mechanical and Electrical PE both offered.
- •Reminder: Cathedral Caverns drops to 60°F year-round. Bring a jacket for the weekend tour.
“Three engineers walk into a bar. The mechanical engineer orders a beer. The electrical engineer orders a beer at 60 Hz. The civil engineer asks how much weight the bar can hold.”