[TachyonBomb]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

If you can do the work and want an "easy" button to a comfortable life in the Bay Area software is the way to go.

In my experience Masters an PHD does not mean the person is more competent or capable of doing a job unless they studied and researched a particular field and continue to work in that field. The higher starting pay can be quickly closed in upon by someone who is good at negotiating and job hopping with a "lesser" degree.

And there are plenty in software around here who make great money without a degree, reputation can carry you a long way if you can network well.

Thanks for the input! That definitely gives me something to think about over the next few months.

Originally Posted by Silver Supra

Agree. Been there, done that.



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!

An interesting fact about most physics undergrad programs is that we are in no way formally introduced or taught non-linear spring systems. If memory serves I believe a dedicated non-linear differential algebra class was only a requirement for math majors so we got no deep experience with it. For the most part as an physics undergraduate exposed to spring systems as linear in the context of a particle/radiation waves, voltage oscillations, kinetic/potential energy transformations, maxwells equations etc. Nearly everything we are taught in an undergrad level is encouraged to be defined as the most simplest pendulum system as possible, this is what I meant when I said they (the professors/curriculum) push us to cut corners and wave off a lot of "less significant" details.

So that is why a more dynamic spring system with more degrees of freedom where a fat guy gets lifted off his seat for a split second didn't cross my mind haha.

I pretty much got introduced to non-linear systems when I decided to do my undergrad research on quadrupolar gravitational radiation and detection. So my limited experience with non-linear concepts is in the context of mass densities/gravitons being self interacting and tensor field comparisons to their scalar field Maxwell counterparts. The whole thing was a 6 month crash course in self teaching myself Einstein tensor notation and general relativity... I learned a hell of a lot but lord knows I only scratched the surface on the subject haha.

Also thanks for the wise advise as well

We should really give this guy his thread back

To sum up for the OP
-springs in this context function the same installed upside down
-spring rate and damper rate should be determined in a dynamic system