Meresa

I'm thinking of majoring in Electrical Engineering. I'm good at math, but I'm no freakin' genius at it either. I know you have to do lots of math in college, but what about in the real world? How much math does an electrical engineer do on the job?

Like, do they have to sit down and work out lots of complicated calculus problems? Or do they just enter that stuff into a computer.

greenvison

I had the same question, But then my friend asked a good question:

Why do you think software companies make millions?

Because they do the math for you.

But not always, a guy at NASA did 5,000 experiments to create a "catcher" that could catch objects going at 2,000 MPH in space. I am sure no software was designed to calculate the "stuff" he needed to make the right "catcher".

furyshade

^yeah, but i think your friend overlooked that engineers do the math for the software companies.

steevee

I believe a "typical" engineer do more design work. There will be math involved, but you will not need to do crazy math problems (since math and physics PhDs do that already; you don't want to take their jobs too, do you?)

greenvison

fury, good point. but he is talking about a "typical" engineer.

BoelterHall

I used to have the same question. Computers only aide you in analysis. You put in numbers only to give you either an estimate of a wanted variable (to make sure your hypothesis is correct or somewhat correct).

The design work is by yourself. The prototyping is half yourself, and half using the computer to verify that your logic and analysis is correct. It's like the same as a calculator. You have to find out which equation to use, what theory to apply. Then, you punch in numbers to make sure you don't get a desired variable of T=-45000K or l=-3.6km.

Of course, the engineering work in the industry is not as trivial. Much of the analysis is complicated and rely on numerical methods to solve on the computer.