I'd like to know how do the authors of Mechanical Engineering books(books of engineering dynamics, mechanics of materials, fluid mechanics...) and some university professors of Mechanical Engineering formulate those beautiful problems and exercises ? Especially those involving real situations. That is, where do they get those problem situations ? Almost always involving a real mechanical system, thermal system, fluid system...
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They look them up in books, articles, standards, catalogues or they observe their surroundings. Mechanical engineering has been around for a while so many of the problems are known; Looking up a existing solution is quite feasible.
For example back when i was teaching mechanism design, many of my exercises were from things that one could be observed at the premises of the building itself. The benefit of this was that students could actually go and observe for themselves. Door closers, cupboard hinges even the cafeteria washing machine hood were all pretty good sources of exercises.
Catalogs are also great as they usually include drawings for the things. Ikea for example has extremely well done vector isometric pictures of everything they sell. Same applies to industrial vendors such as robot manufacturers and heavy construction gear producers. Who often even give out full 3D models of their outer geometry for design purposes (which allows you to repose and build your own highly accurate images). Once you have an idea for a source and some vendor names you can usually find something relevant pretty quickly.
Image 1: A image of Kuka KR6 SIXX and a overall instructions on how image was made plus model download can be found here.
Articles are great as they can include all the relevant math needed, although they tend to be very niche stuff and may or may not have good images. A usually better source is some of the more comprehensive mechanics books that exist (like this one). These books are wast catalogs of interesting mechanisms and have information about relevant design problems related to them.
Lastly, drawing images with CAD/hand is, or at least used to be part of the education of mechanical engineers. So taking what you have seen and sketching it up should not be a overwhelming task. But then I am also an illustrator so i tend to draw stuff just to keep my skills up.
