Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster
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Engineering grad school he'd get a thump for not elaborating.
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Agree. Been there, done that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TachyonBomb
Meant to write 2nd order linear. .
That is the truth!! We are highly encouraged to cut as many corners as possible. Me and my fellow classmates would joke around how engineers chop off as many numbers past the decimal point as they can get away with and the engineers would say at least the attempted to plug in numbers and get an answer. :-P
So are all of you guys engineers (OND. Strat61caster, silver supra)? Every job I come across here in the bay area seems to want an engineering degree. Right now my goal is a Ph.D. in cosmology, theoretical gravity or something similar. But I have a couple of friends that just got their masters degree in software engineering a few months ago from san jose state... lets just say their salaries can pay off my student loans, credit card debt and brz loan in less than a year with spare money to play. It honestly has me thinking about a software engineering masters program and just calling it quits.
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Who encourages you to cut corners? Teachers, fellow students, ?? Don't do it. Engineer or not, anyone working with numbers needs to understand significant figures - and how to determine how many numbers in an answer are significant (known with accuracy). Just because a calculator or computer can spit out 14 decimal places in a number, it does not mean they are significant!!
Read up on the definitions for terms like linear and nonlinear. They sound obvious, but have specific meanings.
We tend to think of springs as linear - i.e., a simple spring rate defining the ratio of force in the spring to displacement. However, many springs are not linear, the rate changes with various properties including load rate (dynamics), material properties, or geometric influences. Even the supported mass could be nonlinear - that 300-lb fat guy in your car may leave his seat, no longer be supported by that spring, after you hit a big bump. When he hits the seat again, his mass returns, but with added incremental acceleration (you know, that "theoretical gravity"!).
I wrote the simple equation of motion for s single degree of freedom (SDOF) model above. Same equation applies, in general, for a multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) model (where the terms are 1- and 2-dimensional arrays). I run a lot of dynamic, nonlinear analyses of MDOF models of assemblages and buildings as well as doing back-of-the-envelope SDOF calcs in a pinch.
Yes, I am an engineer with MS and PhD and offer this advice. Get the degree you want for you - not for some near-term job or even occupation. I did that because I wanted to learn more in my field and, incidentally, wanted to meet future requirements to teach in a major University if I decided to.
I also incidentally learned to program computers long, long, long ago and have also applied that throughout my career. I have worked in many different areas using my background knowledge - don't get pigeon-holed!
Anyway, we have jacked this thread beyond belief
, so I need to get off my soapbox!
