26d • General discussion
Practical Physics Everyday!
Hello! Merry Christmas. I hope it's Ok to share my new page for anybody interested. Of course, I in no way intend to "step on the toes" of the teaching of this page. Also, this isn't to disregard the merits of teaching the details, calculus and formulas of real physics. I just want to provide a resource. I am pasting a promotional post about where my intentions are, how its not so much a real course as an aid, resource and supplement to help anyone understand practical concepts of Physics.
I am not technically a physicist, nor have I been to graduate school. I got my BSME (Bachelor's of Applied Science) in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University Ft Collins in 2017 and worked in the greater Denver area industrial and aerospace supply chain. I don't remember the nitty details of how to perform every type of integration technique- but as a Mechanical/Aerospace Engineer, i.e. the "oompa loompas of physics" as Sheldon Cooper might say lol-
I started this course to address a problem-a Big problem- Too many Engineering/Physics students are intimidated away early on, because learning complex physics and math for the first time is inherently challenging and intimidating. The workload and pace of Engineering and similar majors is incredibly rigorous and there's no way to describe it- you just kind of have to experience it.
Having been in industry for years, and now coming out of industry with years of real world experience as an Engineer- it is not lost on me the memory of the struggle of being a teenager learning the entirety of Single and Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations and Linear Algebra without first being told in easy-to-digest terms for WHY we were forced to learn it. Everybody was asking the same question outside class- Why did we need to learn all this Calculus and Math, with no obvious or direct connection to real, tangible engineering? Even in a supposedly "very hands on program" like CSU, Engineering is ultra-theoretically framed. By the time I came to fully appreciate and understand the practical ways engineers apply the calculus I learned as a freshman- I was going into my senior year. This felt VERY backwards to me. When my classmates and I spread the rumor "Real engineers say they never even do math by hand in most jobs in the real world"- it made it feel even more pointless. Now, having worked in industry and around other engineers- I both understand why you often don't "do it by hand in industry" but why it is still so important and vital to understand, confidently, advanced calculus and models for rates of change, metrology, and approximations in the data being collected for you.
I have essentially created the ONE thing I always wanted the most as a student- the idea of a real, graduated and industry experienced engineer personally taking the time to strip away the crazy convoluted theorems and just explaining, in plain English, easy to digest bits, WHY I was going to learn something, why it mattered, and how actual engineers use it. I am offering my first "blog style post" of my course to show a taste of what this aims to do. I strip away the complex integrals, equations and theorems and give you broad, practical, real world examples, of real cases in Civil and Mechanical Engineering fields. So you know WHY you are learning each and every topic before the course starts. There are no exams, quizzes or assignments. You'll get more than plenty of that in actual school. similarly, you get plenty of math and theory in actual class. My "course" has a singular goal- to fill in the gap students starve for- the "Why" of each topic- and how you can see it in real engineering, WITHOUT bogging you down in the convoluted equations and details quite yet. If I knew WHY I was learning a seemingly fringe math formula I felt much more motivated to learn it.
Bear with me, I just started this, there may be a few typos or awkward wording and I'm refining them. I feel this is an appropriate gap for me to fill. I don't have the confidence to teach in-depth rigorous physics the way a true PhD Professor or candidate would. Like I said- I've been out of school for years and my fluency in doing math by hand is a little muddy. But as an Engineer fresh from industry- I had a CMM CAD based software called QXSoft CMM Manager use Least Squares Approximations and advanced mathematical algorithm to quantify metrological samples and measurements- verifying real machined aerospace and industrial widgets with incredibly tight tolerances. Chemistry and Materials Science, understand slip planes and atomic lattices matters when CNC machines run different metals. These Computer Numerical Controlled Mills, lathes and Coordinate Measuring Machines is why I- the Engineer, never did any math in industry. The Computer Aided Manufacturing Software and G code with recommended Speeds and Feeds optimized the rate of cut, depth of cut, and travel in cartesian and polar coordinates, but everyday, as a Mechanical Engineer, I knew the machinists and programmers were setting those CNC runs up and the validation of the CAM's estimation was all based on the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. I knew the toughness of every metal alloy was defined by the area under the stress-strain curve- an integral. Our in-process inspections had SPC- Statistical Process Control, using the law of large numbers and determining upper and lower confidence levels based on 3 deviations of a gaussian distribution. I never did an integral or derivative by hand- but the importance of understanding the math and physics to an engineer is vital everyday. I want people to know this before they even get into the coursework, so they don't have to wonder like I did! See how Bernoulli's principle allows massive jets to lift, how Statics and Mechanics of Solids keeps skyscrapers from toppling over in storms, how race car drivers can now walk away from insane crashes that should kill them thanks to statics, structural analysis and physics in Motorsport Engineering, and how a Venturi Ground Effect allows a Formula 1 car to corner at incredible speeds without flying off the circuit!
1
3 comments
Practical Physics Everyday!
powered by
skool.com/kelkel-physics-6287
Are you currently taking Physics? Teaching it? Independent study or homeschooling? Just like physics and want to hang out? Come learn with us!
Suggested communities
Powered by