Book excerpt: Modeling Engineering Systems goes right to the heart of engineering, teaching you how to: understand and use the three basic types of engineering building blocks recognize the analogies that can be drawn between the fundamental elements of electrical, mechanical, fluid, and thermal systems develop math models for first- and higher-order systems using four fundamental methods analyze the models you develop perform frequency analysis and plot frequency responses Educated at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and MIT, Jack W. Lewis is a registered professional engineer, his specialty is the design of automatic control and instrumental systems, especially as related to the marine industry. He is the author of numerous technical papers and articles, including national award-winning papers for the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME). Lewis is a member of SNAME, ASNE, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). -understand and use the three basic types of engineering building blocks -recognize the analogies that can be drawn between the fundamental elements of electrical, mechanical, fluid, and thermal systems -develop math models for first- and higher-order systems using four fundamental methods