Mechanical Engineering Photographer?

[Sirius Glass]

Always go back to first principles. Otherwise important factors get forgotten when a formulaic plug and crank approach is used.

 

[sleepOhh]

For the engineer graduates:

What would you say the most challenging class was in school?

For the engineering students:

What has been the challenging class you've taken currently?


I'm currently in Physics (Mechanics) and I would say it is pretty challenging.

 

[Sirius Glass]

For the engineer graduates:

What would you say the most challenging class was in school?

For the engineering students:

What has been the challenging class you've taken currently?


I'm currently in Physics (Mechanics) and I would say it is pretty challenging.

When I was in school, the most challenging class was learning to write, especially clearly and concisely.

After I graduated one of my bosses got so pissed off at my inability to write that he signed me up for a one week writing class at UCLA Extension School. It was the best thing that I was forced to do. I made a big difference in my career. After all people go into engineering, math and the sciences because they cannot write.

 

[alanrockwood]

I'm a scientist, not an engineer, but there is some overlap in the coursework. The most challenging class for me as an undergraduate might have been chemical thermodynamics, which was the first semester of of physical chemistry.

 

[MattKing]

For the engineer graduates:

What would you say the most challenging class was in school?

For the engineering students:

What has been the challenging class you've taken currently?


I'm currently in Physics (Mechanics) and I would say it is pretty challenging.

A very, very long time ago I was a math and physics student at university. Some of my classes were also classes taken by engineering students, although their transcripts recorded a different course name and number.

The most challenging class I ever took was a 300 level course in number theory.

The engineering students in that class seemed to be equally perplexed.

Fibbonaci, anyone?

 

[Sirius Glass]

There is number theory, but is does not explain why c programmers start counting with 0 instead of 1. But then people who can only think in terms of 0 and 1 are just plain weird.

 

[Dr Croubie]

There is number theory, but is does not explain why c programmers start counting with 0 instead of 1. But then people who can only think in terms of 0 and 1 are just plain weird.

There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don't.

 

[pbromaghin]

There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don't.

*groan*

 

[Sirius Glass]

*groan*

Good corn grows in a healthy groan.

 

[Oxleyroad]

For the engineer graduates:

What would you say the most challenging class was in school?

For the engineering students:

What has been the challenging class you've taken currently?


I'm currently in Physics (Mechanics) and I would say it is pretty challenging.

Don't know how relevant my answers are given my struggles/challenges were 25 years ago, but Applied Dynamic Balancing for balancing internal combustion engines and Finite Element Analysis in long hand were my curses. So glad I did it all though because today I appreciate the computing power behind modern engine design and I can look at "pretty" coloured FEA output data and quickly know if the meshing has been defined appropriately.

 

[Steve Smith]

I'm not an engineering graduate, but I am an engineer.

The most challenging and more importantly, pointless, thing I tried to learn was using the square root of minus one in calculations. Nothing this involved seemed to have any relevance to the real world and I become disinterested.


Steve.

 

[lxdude]

Good corn grows in a healthy groan.

Very productively. In fact, it's groan exponentially.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I'm not an engineering graduate, but I am an engineer.

The most challenging and more importantly, pointless, thing I tried to learn was using the square root of minus one in calculations. Nothing this involved seemed to have any relevance to the real world and I become disinterested.


Steve.

The importance of the square root of minus one is merely the basis of the mathematics that all of electrical engineering is based on. Without that, your computer and internet would not and could not exist. Ironically it is part of the Complex Number System which comprises of Real and Imaginary Numbers. So does that mean that anything imaginary is irrelevant to the real world? Now you have entered the Rabbit Hole first described by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

 

[Steve Smith]

The importance of the square root of minus one is merely the basis of the mathematics that all of electrical engineering is based on. Without that, your computer and internet would not and could not exist.

Perhaps... but I have never needed to use it!


Steve.

 

[Nodda Duma]

The importance of the square root of minus one is merely the basis of the mathematics that all of electrical engineering is based on. Without that, your computer and internet would not and could not exist. Ironically it is part of the Complex Number System which comprises of Real and Imaginary Numbers. So does that mean that anything imaginary is irrelevant to the real world? Now you have entered the Rabbit Hole first described by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

In electromagnetics, imaginary numbers simply describe a phase component of the signal. It's the reason we have 3-phase power. Also the optical transfer function consists of a magnitude (MTF) and a phase. Phase cause a contrast reversal at very high spatial frequencies....which you can see in photographs. It's also fundamental to interferometry (important for optics fabrication).



Btw I had no particularly tough courses..except the first semester of calculus which I had to retake.

My biggest hurdle was learning to think like an engineer...to hone the common sense I was born with into a productive engineering mind. This didn't happen overnight, but once it did it was like a light bulb turned on and chased away the design darkness in the world. My grades shot up because I "got it" regardless of what classes I took....because regardless of the discipline the fundamentals are all the same.

Once I began working, because of experience the light bulb has eventually become as bright as the sun. Engineering and design work is now easy...its dealing with management and funding bullshit that sucks.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The importance of the square root of minus one is merely the basis of the mathematics that all of electrical engineering is based on. Without that, your computer and internet would not and could not exist. Ironically it is part of the Complex Number System which comprises of Real and Imaginary Numbers. So does that mean that anything imaginary is irrelevant to the real world? Now you have entered the Rabbit Hole first described by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

Perhaps... but I have never needed to use it!


Steve.

Shocking!

 

[Steve Smith]

Shocking!

Only when I touch live and neutral at the same time!


Steve.

 

[sleepOhh]

Only when I touch live and neutral at the same time!


Steve.

After some research I just understood what that meant! haha

 

[alanrockwood]

The square root of minus one is also an extremely important part of the Schroedinger equation, both the time independent form and the time dependent form, which brings us back to quantum mechanics, solid state theory, and ultimately the physics and chemistry underlying photography.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Only when I touch live and neutral at the same time!


Steve.

It is good to go through life well grounded.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The square root of minus one is also an extremely important part of the Schroedinger equation, both the time independent form and the time dependent form, which brings us back to quantum mechanics, solid state theory, and ultimately the physics and chemistry underlying photography.

Time variance and time invariance are as important as real and imaginary.

 

[Steve Smith]

It is good to go through life well grounded.

Sometimes it's useful to be not very well grounded.


Steve.

 

[Truzi]

Only when I touch live and neutral at the same time!

I once helped a friend install a modular phone jack in an old apartment she had just moved into. There was no extant jack, just four bare wires, and I knew only two were active (there was only one phone line on the service) - but which two? We had no VOM, and nothing else to fake it with - not even a flashlight bulb.

So... knowing it was going to be nasty, and hoping no one tried to call at that moment, I used my tongue.

 

[Dr Croubie]

I once helped a friend install a modular phone jack in an old apartment she had just moved into. There was no extant jack, just four bare wires, and I knew only two were active (there was only one phone line on the service) - but which two? We had no VOM, and nothing else to fake it with - not even a flashlight bulb.

So... knowing it was going to be nasty, and hoping no one tried to call at that moment, I used my tongue.

Many a mechanic has been known to use a device called a "calibrated screwdriver" to check battery voltages...

 

[Steve Smith]

I once helped a friend install a modular phone jack in an old apartment she had just moved into. There was no extant jack, just four bare wires, and I knew only two were active (there was only one phone line on the service) - but which two? We had no VOM, and nothing else to fake it with - not even a flashlight bulb.

So... knowing it was going to be nasty, and hoping no one tried to call at that moment, I used my tongue.

There are only six options. Just keep trying wire pairs until you get a tone.


Steve.