Maths and engineering.........
PPRuNe Engineering Dept Apprentice
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Maths and engineering.........
....go hand-in-hand right? Well, I'm missing my karate lessons tonight to try and figure out Differentiating this and that, and I wonder "what the crud will I have this to use for in real life"? It's easy enough with physics, you can understand forces, see the ball hitting the ground etc. But maths is so ruddy abstract! It's really confusing me! But, as I hope to do engineering in the future, I'm persevering. But, I'd like to ask you maths minded PPRuNers out there, is what topics in Maths should I be concentrating on? Geometry? Trigonometry? 2+2? What? <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
Oh, and another thing. Whyyyy the big long words????
[ 19 February 2002: Message edited by: Nose Indiana Groond ]</p>
Oh, and another thing. Whyyyy the big long words????
[ 19 February 2002: Message edited by: Nose Indiana Groond ]</p>
There's too much maths taught on Engineering courses in many cases. We had a discussion about this in my office a few weeks ago, where we deal with anything up to whole aircraft approvals and NOBODY could recall using anything more complex than a 2nd order differential equation on a real world problem.
My personal experience is that the most important subjects are...
2d and 3d trig. .mechanics / statics. .stats (very important). .algebraic manipulation, you need to be very very good at this.. .1st order differential equations and basic linear / differential equation solving.. .Numerical methods. .Integration and differentiation, including partial and numerical.. .Dimensional analysis.
. .No doubt some people, dealing with things like CFD do get into deeper maths, but most Engineers certainly don't. But, certainly in the English schools system I'd covered virtually all of this by the time I was 18, and probably the only thing I learned new on my degree that was genuinely useful was numerical methods.
G
My personal experience is that the most important subjects are...
2d and 3d trig. .mechanics / statics. .stats (very important). .algebraic manipulation, you need to be very very good at this.. .1st order differential equations and basic linear / differential equation solving.. .Numerical methods. .Integration and differentiation, including partial and numerical.. .Dimensional analysis.
. .No doubt some people, dealing with things like CFD do get into deeper maths, but most Engineers certainly don't. But, certainly in the English schools system I'd covered virtually all of this by the time I was 18, and probably the only thing I learned new on my degree that was genuinely useful was numerical methods.
G
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I really wish I had tried harder at Maths at school! I hated maths because I was never very good at it. I have since found out that it is not entirely my fault why I found it so hard. That reason being that during my O levels I was allowed to use a calcutator. Because of that, I would struggle with simple problems like long division and multiplication when I didn't have one to hand. I managed to scrape through a HND, and level 3 maths is no picnic I can tell you!
When I started studying for my licenses, I decided to start from scratch at Maths and go right back to basics, without using a plastic brain. What a huge difference that has made. My mental arithmetic has improved immensly. Mathematics has a huge application in aviation from flying aeroplanes, designing them, building them, fixing them and developing them. The ability for an engineer to solve mathematical problems is probably the most important of all the skills he has.
It is so easy to rely on technology to make your life easier, but it should not be used to teach the three Rs. You can also see that the level of literacy is declining since the advent of the spill chucker!
When I started studying for my licenses, I decided to start from scratch at Maths and go right back to basics, without using a plastic brain. What a huge difference that has made. My mental arithmetic has improved immensly. Mathematics has a huge application in aviation from flying aeroplanes, designing them, building them, fixing them and developing them. The ability for an engineer to solve mathematical problems is probably the most important of all the skills he has.
It is so easy to rely on technology to make your life easier, but it should not be used to teach the three Rs. You can also see that the level of literacy is declining since the advent of the spill chucker!
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ECAM has pointed the discussion in a relevant direction. In the real world we usually use computer prgrammes to solve the complicated problems and only the simple stuff is left to the human brain. As Ghengis says, you need to be very very good at algebraic manipulation but most of the rest is never used.
This may miss the point that in studying Mathematics we are learning the principles behind the design calculations. A quick read of Sir Stanley Hooker's autobiography "Not Much of an Engineer" will reveal the true relationship between higher mathematics and engineering. Sir Stanley was a PhD in Maths who designed jet engines using mental arithmetic. He also had the gift of being able to explain very complex engineering matters in simple easily understood ways. He could do this because he had an instinctive grasp of the mathematical principles.
We seldom consider the foundations of our houses, indeed we cannot even see them, but they are there nevertheless and the house wouldn't stand without them.
**********************************. .Through difficulties to the cinema
This may miss the point that in studying Mathematics we are learning the principles behind the design calculations. A quick read of Sir Stanley Hooker's autobiography "Not Much of an Engineer" will reveal the true relationship between higher mathematics and engineering. Sir Stanley was a PhD in Maths who designed jet engines using mental arithmetic. He also had the gift of being able to explain very complex engineering matters in simple easily understood ways. He could do this because he had an instinctive grasp of the mathematical principles.
We seldom consider the foundations of our houses, indeed we cannot even see them, but they are there nevertheless and the house wouldn't stand without them.
**********************************. .Through difficulties to the cinema
