• Question: Do you use complicated math at your work?

    Asked by Scottf07 to Matthew, Neil, Paula, Pete, Philippa on 10 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Philippa Jefferis

      Philippa Jefferis answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Hi,

      I wouldn’t say it is all that complicated especially as a lot of the complex calculations I use a spreadsheet or a computer model to carry out. Though when using these, I always try to do the calculations by hand to get an idea of what the number should come out as – it’s dangerous to fully rely on a computer to give you the results without checking them yourself.

      To be fair a lot of my maths is just resolving forces – something you will do in GCSE Physics and in the Mechanics module of A Level maths. There are lots of clever formula that have been developed by people over time to try and understand what is happening in reality. At university I often had to derive these formula (show where they came from) which I found hard, where as now I am allowed to just use them in my design calculations.

    • Photo: Pete Symons

      Pete Symons answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Mostly I leave the complicated Maths to the specialist engineers! Maths was never my strongest subject in school but I had enough of a grasp to understand engineering principles and physics to allow me to become a more general engineer. Most days I will use maths in my job, whether it is financial or probabilistic calculations for a safety assessment.

    • Photo: Neil Taylor

      Neil Taylor answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Hi Athos, Porthos, and Aramis!

      I think every engineer will be different, and it will depend on the type of engineering that you are involved in and the type of company you work for.

      I work for a consultancy, and we are paid to solve really challenging problems for other companies. Because of this, I do sometimes need to use complicated maths at work.

      Some of the equations can look really crazy (especially when you see symbols you haven’t seen before!) but as oncelearn what the symbols mean, things start to make sense. It’s the sort of thing that you pick up over time, slowly building your knowledge.

      Like Philippa said, because the equations are complicated, you will tend to use a spreadsheet or other computer software to write the formula once and get it checked by another engineer. You can then use it again the next time you need it!

      A lot of the time the equations are relatively simple though. It all depends on the problem you are trying to solve!

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