Intellectual Betterment

[ColinJ]

As for Engineers, obviously as a discipline it uses Maths, but it is subtly different. Beyond A-level Maths the two subjects diverge. Maths deals with all kinds of things engineering just doesn't get the time to. It may surprise you to know that quite a few engineers think some ideas in Maths are a load of crap and tricks of the mind that are too clever by half, it is just that it is too useful to give up . Maths is like the engineer's mad Uncle who has been locked in the attic that nobody wants to see and has a lot of the engineer's answers. They go and visit only when they have to.

I did an electronic engineering degree and I was surprised at how much maths we needed. What surprised me even more was that many of the younger students on my course (I was 28 at the time) had never studied calculus and didn't even know what complex numbers were, so they were stuffed. We already had engineering maths on the syllabus, but before we got stuck into that we had to cram in the material that they hadn't done for their A-levels. I don't know what they had studied instead of calculus and complex numbers but whatever it was clearly didn't prepare them for tackling an engineering degree.

In many ways, I found myself getting more and more frustrated at university. We pretty much had to accept the maths and physics that we used without proof. One professor actually told us that he wasn't 100% convinced that all of the things that he was teaching us were 'true' but it didn't matter because they 'worked'!

I did an engineering degree because I thought I wanted to do something practical but I think I might have been better doing a degree in maths. If I ever won the lottery, I'd be tempted to have a go just for the fun and challenge of it. (I know I could buy the books and work though them, but I don't think I'd get round to it without some external pressure pushing me.)

I didn't watch The Code but I like the sound of it. I'll catch up on iPlayer.

 

[Bayerd]

I enjoyed and understood most of it, except the i numbers, but I'm sure given thought I'd get my head around it.

The one area that disappointed me was surrounding the wave relationship between musical notes. He went on to show that buildings have been designed with these ratios in mind, but it would have been more impressive if he could have then gone on to prove that buildings designed like this are better acoustically than those that aren't. I'm guessing he didn't, as they don't, and that great acoustic buildings bear no relation to those ratios . (Which kind of makes sense as a fully intune major triad is not even tempered).

 

[Arch]

In many ways, I found myself getting more and more frustrated at university. We pretty much had to accept the maths and physics that we used without proof. One professor actually told us that he wasn't 100% convinced that all of the things that he was teaching us were 'true' but it didn't matter because they 'worked'!

When I was running the remedial sessions (as a PhD teaching assistant) for the undergrad stats course in archaeology, I managed by re reading the chapter the day before, and looking back at my own work from when I did the course. When I explained a formula as something over n-1, a bright spark asked, why n-1, not n? I said "I really don't know! but I'll find out".

So I asked a far cleverer maths person than myself, and his reply was pretty much, "Because n-1 works better!". So next week, I relayed this answer, and everyone was happy with it!

 

[marinyork]

I did an electronic engineering degree and I was surprised at how much maths we needed. What surprised me even more was that many of the younger students on my course (I was 28 at the time) had never studied calculus and didn't even know what complex numbers were, so they were stuffed. We already had engineering maths on the syllabus, but before we got stuck into that we had to cram in the material that they hadn't done for their A-levels. I don't know what they had studied instead of calculus and complex numbers but whatever it was clearly didn't prepare them for tackling an engineering degree.

Complex numbers were on Further Maths for a long time. It's rarer but not unheard of for students on engineering courses to have done it. Same thing in plenty of other subjects, quite a few of the chemists I lived with didn't do A-level Maths and had problems grappling with the rather disorganised remedial maths notes. The Physics course I did have very little Maths on it really and was chosen by various people such as Medics and Vets as the lesser of two evils to avoid the maths at all costs.

In many ways, I found myself getting more and more frustrated at university. We pretty much had to accept the maths and physics that we used without proof. One professor actually told us that he wasn't 100% convinced that all of the things that he was teaching us were 'true' but it didn't matter because they 'worked'!

Grass is always greener on the other side. There have been reports before about Maths and history students being the most disenchanted. Plenty of frustration on later Analysis modules and Advanced Vector Calculus modules. I sat in on a few courses for other things and I find the 'waffly' nature soon sets me right. It's still interesting curiosity wise, you can enjoy things from another perspective. We also have a special phrase in maths for this - 'fairly non-trivial' or if it's harder then 'highly non-trivial'.

I did an engineering degree because I thought I wanted to do something practical but I think I might have been better doing a degree in maths. If I ever won the lottery, I'd be tempted to have a go just for the fun and challenge of it. (I know I could buy the books and work though them, but I don't think I'd get round to it without some external pressure pushing me.)

I was taught Physics by two people who had done Electrical Engineering and they were adamant I should do Physics at University. I think quite a few people could have done several different subjects. Always struck by the number of people at GCSE who got 1 grade different and are advised to do this subject or that subject as they are 'clearly' better at it and their lives afterwards are different. Just seems odd to me.

 

[ColinJ]

I was taught Physics by two people who had done Electrical Engineering and they were adamant I should do Physics at University. I think quite a few people could have done several different subjects. Always struck by the number of people at GCSE who got 1 grade different and are advised to do this subject or that subject as they are 'clearly' better at it and their lives afterwards are different. Just seems odd to me.

Electronics was my main hobby for 15 years so that is why I chose to do an Electronic Engineering degree. Funnily enough, my final year project was the last electronics design that I ever tackled! The degree and my subsequent job (software) killed my interest in hardware ...

I think that if I'd been designing highly specialised electronics kit for my own little company, I might have stuck with it, but being a small cog in a big(gish) complex, stressful industrial machine didn't suit me!

 

[Yellow Fang]

I'm not sure you need much maths to do engineering, but you certainly need maths to study it.

 

[Norm]

What, like a whole playlist on Probability that he has on there, for example?

But what are the chances of that happening?

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

But what are the chances of that happening?

I don't know, I haven't studied the material yet.

 

[Canrider]

So I asked a far cleverer maths person than myself, and his reply was pretty much, "Because n-1 works better!". So next week, I relayed this answer, and everyone was happy with it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessel's_correction#The_source_of_the_bias

For once this is a quite comprehensible bit of wikipedia maths.