mattbatson

I have continued my research into the original question and have met with a couple of other engineers. One, who retired about 6 years ago, worked for Pratt and Whitney. She was primarily involved in CAD with regards to the jet engines. I told her my issue with disliking math. Her response was that she could not remember ever using any of the calculus et al that she learned in college. I was kind of surprised and told her so. She responded with a comment along the lines of "the software does all the work" with regards to modeling and such. Now, I also met an EE who has worked for Lockheed for over 20 years and he said that he DID use calculus and was forced to refer back to the college books during his first few years. So far, ME's I've interviewed say no, and the EE says yes:eyebrow: Maybe when I get to calculus I'll begin to fall in love with math? thanks for the comments. I was just posting a follow up with some more info I've found.

I am primarily interested in mechanical engineering, and noticed there werent any mechy's responding here. I met with a mech engineer yesterday at the local university while there talking to a counselor. He told me that he works in the power generation field...specifically nat. gas turbine power plants with Siemens. His department works with data acquisition, and monitors all of their turbines throughout the country from a computer screen. He said that they recently had a project that required some trig. (sine waves from the data acquistion or some such). Apparently the department decided to buy Matlab (sp?), I think is what he called it, rather than having people bring their trig books to work. Apparently this program does all the math for you? Anywho, it sounds like math is not a regular part of his day. So, I've decided to continue moving in the direction of an engineering degree. If I get to calc and hit a wall, I'll move into something else:eyebrow: I have been thinking about AG college, of all things, and something along the lines of crop science.

So here is a question. Are we not to the point where engineers use software/computers to do most if not all of the math? Are you guys really pulling out trig and calc books and calculators on a daily or even weekly basis? Cause that is kind of what it sounds like....

I've been lurking on here for a while and decided to finally post a question. Hopefully it is a question some others can relate to. I'm in my late thirties and at a position where I can pick and choose whichever route I would like to take. Money is not so important as is just enjoying what I do. I have always wanted to get into mechanical engineering. The stuff just fascinates me. So, I enrolled with the local college to start taking the fundamental math classes (already have a B.A. in business). I'm taking trig right now, and not doing horribly, although it does require a lot of my time as I am no natural talent. My point is, I really do not enjoy math. At all. I would really rather be doing just about anything other than math. Is this going to be a problem? Is the average workday of a mechy spent with calculator in hand? I cannot even imagine memorizing all of the different functions that I've learned so far. And I'm not even to calculus yet. Should I reconsider my choice and go for something else?