Dept of Mechanics |
(1978-1979) |
| It was my dream to become a physicist since my childhood. So I came to the Dept of Mechanics of the Tongji University. |
| Mechanics is not physics, though. Mechanics researches on the forces and their interactions among the objects in questions while physics dives deep into the very inner of the object - its atom, molecular, proton, electron, and the unseen world. They study the same object with the same purpose but from different view - one from outer and the other from inner. |
| Mechanics answers questions like why your chairs will deform after you sit there for too long and physics this type of questions: why a stone always falls from a higher place to the floor etc. |
| Unfortunately I didn't have the chances to get all the answers regarding mechanics, for I stayed there only for half a year. |
| The Mechanics Class was comprised of 33 students, 28 from Shanghai, 2 from Zhejiang,2 from Fujian and one from Shandong provinces. I was the 2nd youngest in the class with 16 years of age. The youngest guy was a 14 year old Wenzhouer. I last met him in 1993 in Shenzhen where he was a senior designer at a architect design institute. |
| Our class tutor was nice man in his mid 50's, from Wenzhou, Zhejiang. He treated me and other younger students like his children. He invited us to his home several times and I was like a shy girl by him. He liked me too. |
| Tongji is strong in architecture science and engineering and is well-known throughout the country, so is the mechanics department playing a significant role in the university. Mechanics is the fundamental knowledge base for building structure design and others - bridges, steels structures, concrete, etc. Perspective for the students of that class has been always bright ever since. |
| During they semester I studied mechanical drawing course, for making basic drawings of machines components such as shafts, cylinders, screws, nuts, bearings, valves etc. 3 dimensional sectional view was also studied, which is the base for any type of mechanical drawing., Of course it's very different from architectural drawing. |
| More math, physics, chemistry were also taught, as well as languages, politics (communist ideology). |
| Some were useful, some just garbage. |