ABSTRACT
What is it about cryogenics that makes cryogenic equipment different from the equipment of ordinary chemical or mechanical engineering? The most common pitfall in cryogenic equipment design and selection is assuming that cryogenic fluids and materials behave much like those of our ordinary experience. They do not. Indeed, the whole point of treating cryogenic engineering as if it were a separate discipline of engineering is that there are special properties of cryogenic fluids and materials that demand special techniques. We are not better than any other engineer, just different. Our work is not more or less challenging than his (or hers), just different. I do not think much of articles proclaiming how tough we have it, how smart we must be to do cryogenics. We do have to be different, however.
