I am not so sure that even the most learned engineer, or scientist would be able to do that on his own, with out going to college..
Well, at some point, one of them had to, because how else would we be teaching it in college?
Moreover, they realized that it's a
huge fucking waste of time to re-invent the wheel every time you want to figure out a problem of kinematics. As far as I'm concerned, that realization makes them way smarter than you.