Mechanics is at the core of several of today’s engineering sciences. Its principles have their roots in ancient history. There are known scripts of Archimedes, Aristoteles, and Heron of Alexandria describing levers, screws, the inclined plane, ropes, and further inventions. Even though the wheel was invented a long time ago, and machine elements, such as axes and shafts, gear wheels and roller bearings, as well as the construction thereof belong to the basic knowledge of a modern mechanical engineer, numerous inventions are still made in the field of mechanics. Often, a novel interaction between several known components or a new use of an old device can contribute to a patentable invention.
A particularly interdisciplinary and innovative branch of mechanics is mechatronics, a combination of mechanical engineering and electronics.
