• One of the fundamental features of Engineering is to make trade-offs to get optimal designs
• If we overdesign, then all designs become simple, but more expensive, and more difficult to manufacture
• If we underdesign, then our design will not fulfill our requirements
• Therefore we use knowledge and tools to achieve designs which are ‘just right’.
• There are many physical factors which can affect the quality of a design,
- Resonance at wrong frequency
- Electromagnetic interference effects
- Non uniform cooling effects (eg. warping in plastic parts)