alt Hacker NewsThere was a period of a century or more where steam engine design parameters were determined by experiment and gut feel. The physics of fluid dynamics required to explain why a design is optimal just did not exist yet.
There's a lot of places in history where engineering far outpaced the science required to explain it.
If your design work is not based upon science and mathematics, it is not engineering.
Not saying engineering is required to build or improve a product; it is not.
"try this" is not engineering.