huangyhg

aerospace engineering
hi, im 15 and am concidering taking actions to gear my education towards an aerospace engineering degree, there is one problem in my mind. i am not what you would say a lover of math. my question is, is there a field of aerospace engineering that doesnt use super super complex math???
i am good at math, but i just want to know wheather i need to find a way to get past my dislike of math, or if i can avoid it and still do what i love.
thanks for any advice you can give me.
masternoth
eng-tips forums is member supported.
well, you may be sol then. any engineering degree is going to require a minimum of 2 yrs of college math. start studying!!
ttfn
if you don't like math, then maybe design is a better fit; these are the guys who use cad programs to design the parts of the plane. they do some math, but leave the complicated stuff to us engineers.
i think that there are two issues with "just" being a cad driver. most companies do not hire only cad drivers; our "designers" are exclusively bsmes.
also, you'll still need an engineering degree to get the job, even if you don't use much of your education there.
ttfn
you're 15, your tastes will change.
when i was around your age i hated to read, but now i try to read a novel once a month. something needs to "click" in your head, and when that happens, you'll discover the "magic" of numbers and will start to appreciate math and understand it (though might still dislike it).
"art without engineering is dreaming; engineering without art is calculating."
wait until you've taken at least one semester/quarter of college-level physics (real physics, for engineers, with calculus included, not the dumbed-down version for jocks). like mango says, when you see how the numbers describe and show the real world...well, either the necessity/beauty of math will bite you, or you can always switch to an mba path.
stay with it. i found that math was alot like learning to play the guitar; you hit a wall, and despair, but with discipline & persistence, you have a sort of epiphany, and it gets easier. " the scales fall from your eyes" and you quickly build on the basics.
if you understand the real effects the maths will be a bit easier to understand. i was some sort of certified math genius at school, but i found engineering math hard. not impossible, but hard.
cheers
greg locock
not many engineers use a lot of math in their work that they had to learn at college. a few do, but i would say most, perhaps the vast majority, do not. i myself have only ever solved one partial differential equation at work, and it wasn't for work! i was working some non-work technical stuff out for fun. mind you, i've done mainly design stressing; aerothermal people and those designing stealth systems, for instance, have to do rather more.
to do any sort of engineering almost anywhere in the world these days you will need a degree at a minimum. to get a good starting wage an msc would help. however, if you can force yourself to achieve that level of math in study, it can be quite likely that you'll never need as much math again.
on the other hand, if you do eventually find you get on ok with math, then a "math heavy" job could well be more interesting than otherwise, at least to start with.
thanks for the tips, i dont hate math, its just frustrating. im homeschooled so the math isnt dummied down, im on an online tutor, called aleks, its frustrating, but i make slow but satasfying progress.
thanks again for all the advice, ive got infinate questions, poping up at every moment, and i really appreciate the help of those in the field. : )
thanks
masternoth
dumb question, i looked on several glossarys, couldnt find out what it means. what does sol mean???
thanks
masternoth
sol if your talking about nastran finite element analysis is the "solution sequence" that you chose. unless your not meaning that "sol"??
keep with the math, i always think of math as patterns. once the penny drops then you can see all sorts of patterns within the numbers and it all starts to make sense. and when that happens your view changes from it being "super super hard complex math", to simple logical problems.

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