I don't know mathS but applied for Electrical Engineering, drop out?

"Maths" you're not in America. :p

If mechanical engineering is something you're really interested in, go the whole way and do a course in maths alongside it. I can barely remember most of the maths stuff I did at school, but I'd imagine it'll get easier to learn once you've been doing it for a bit.
 
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Thanks for the link Lightnix that guy just explained long division beautifully, seems so easy now.

I'll keep doing it then, I've officially uninstalled all my PC games to get down and dirty with "Math" :p
 
If it is what you're interested in then I say go for it.

Just remember to break a long or difficult equation down into smaller pieces instead of looking at the whole thing and going "screw this." :p

It's not that difficult a process but the way equations are presented can be daunting.

And also don't be disheartened when someone else can do it quicker than you. :)
 
Haha looking at difficult equations makes my brain shrivel up at the moment. Always hated Math until recently, the most complicated stuff looks so interesting.

Thanks for the advice, I was just going to give up. I hope I don't start the course and the work involves high Math on day one :eek:
 
Khan academy - Start with basic calculus, this will allow you to move onto differential equations. You need to know what derivatives are at least =P

Learning how to find the derivative, and the anti-derivative was pretty satisfying when i first learned calculus, its the bread and butter of calculus.


Pffft you don't need long division, just do it the short way =P

133 / 5

The closest multiple of 5 that goes in whole is 130, which is 26 fives. You have 3 left over, and thats 0.6 of a five. So 26.5. Thats the way i always do it.
 
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Nate Silvers said:
I think I need to start with basic equations first lol Do you enjoy Math then? I hope I don't hit a wall and it turns into a hobby for me.
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Calculus is pretty damn easy to start of with really.

If you want to find the derivative of something, its a fairly simple rule, minus one from the power, and add(actually multiply) the power to the front

a^5

becomes

5a^4.

see where the power went? To the front, and power went down one.

Remember, just seeing an 'a' on its own always has implicit 1 power, and 1 on the front

a is actually 1a^1. Just nobody writes it out like that.

If you have a variable with a number already on the front, just multiply it by the original power and the power goes down one.

5a^5.

Becomes

25a^4


if you have an equation with multiple components

say 5a^5 + 5b^5,

just do it for each component(The plus separates the components, which are technically called terms), which becomes

25a^4 + 25b^4

Its the bread and butter, its pretty simple once, you practice it.
 
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Nate Silvers said:
Fair enough I'll check it out.



What if it's a larger number say 1736 / 7?
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Me personally? I know that 250, sevens is 1750. Then i just start removing sevens until i get the answer. I know that the difference between 1750 and 1736 is 14, so I can do it pretty quick.

Everybody has their own tricks.

Anyway this is arithmetic, its pretty boring, and has hardly anything to do with the math i like.


If you can do the derivative thing backwards, you can get the anti-derivative and which allows you to do basic integration straight away. Then you can go onto integration by parts. Then oh ****, you can pretty much do what most a-level math calculus students can do.
 
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I'm just learning equations again if you think this is boring :p I don't understand Calculus yet I don't even know what derivative is (a variable point??) or why a^5 becomes 5a^4. Also what the hell is a ^

Yep I'm a moron.

What Math do you like? Any Math you don't like (not because it's boring).
 
Nate Silvers said:
I'm just learning equations again if you think this is boring :p I don't understand Calculus yet I don't even know what derivative is (a variable point??) or why a^5 becomes 5a^4. Also what the hell is a ^

Yep I'm a moron.

What Math do you like? Any Math you don't like?
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^ = Power. I just can't right the little number thing small, and higher up.

I just told how to work out a derivative. A derivative is in fact the rate of change. If you had a car, that was moving at a velocity described by an equation, which you took the the derivative of, you would have a equation that describes its acceleration.

All you do, is minus one to the power, and move the original power value to the front, and in a instant you took the velocity equation and turned into a acceleration equation.


I can explain why this works with the (f(x + a) - f(x)) / h formula. But the approach I just showed you, is pretty much how most people approach it.

I'm maybe i'm moving to fast because I already learned it.
 
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Ah right so 5a^4 is the equation and "minus one from the power, and add(actually multiply) the power to the front" is the derivative. I dunno I won't bug you I imagine it's like someone asking me why 7x7 = 49.

I'll keep watching the videos hopefully pick it up. Better get my head down night :)
 
Nate Silvers said:
Ah right so 5a^4 is the equation and "minus one from the power, and add(actually multiply) the power to the front" is the derivative. I dunno I won't bug you I imagine it's like someone asking me why 7x7 = 49.

I'll keep watching the videos hopefully pick it up. Better get my head down night :)
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a^5 is the original equation.

"minus one from the power, and add(actually multiply) the original value of power to the front" is the method that turns it into the derivative which equals

5a^4.


Doing it step by, step.


a^5.


Move the five to the front


5a

Then, in your head, take 5 and - 1, which equals 4.

now put that in as the power

5a^4.


Thats the derivative, doing this backwards is the anti-derivative. These are your main weapons in calculus. Taking a anti-derivative of a acceleration equation would turn it into a velocity equation.

My personal favorite, is finding the volume of a 'solid of revolution' which can be done with anti-derivatives(Integration). Simple and requires a bit of imagination to visualize how it works =P

Your biggest hurdle I think would be integration by parts, as that can get messy.

Once you've done that, you can do differential equations, then you can go onto laplace transforms(Fiddly, I know people really good with math that make mistakes doing these) and fourier transforms. If you can do them, then you can probably do electronic engineering math, possibly better than a-level students. Do a-level students do laplace transforms? I don't know. I did a btec in electronic engineering, in which I did all this math but i did cs in uni.

Electronic Engineers in reality, don't actually work out there own laplace transforms, even if they need them in there real work, they use laplace transform tables which have them already pre-worked out for common functions.
 
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if you put the work in you will manage. if you get a good lecturer with good notes you will manage. there is always the tutor or extra maths classes option too

my course had people on it who had been in industry for 20 years and hadn't done maths for that long and most got on with it.

i think its MIT who have loads of maths lectures on youtube which are good. theres also tutors on there and if you find one who works/teaches in a style that suits you then you are laughing

certainly don't let being not so clued up ruin your dream.

i would be answering different if you 'hated' maths though. because theres going to be a lot of it.
 
What level are you studying at? Level 2/3, ONC/D, HNC/D, degree? Does your college offer support sessions?

I enrolled on a Manufacturing Engineering HNC 3 years ago, and for that you have to take certain core units, some of which are the same for electrical, including some pretty nasty maths that includes integration, differentiation, long division, partial fractions, statistics, logarithms etc (some much harder than others).

I was totally crap at maths. I attended the support classes religiously and came out with a distinction in engineering science (application of mechanical and electrical principles), and a merit in analytical methods (only 10 or 15% manage more than a pass each year). I have purely mechanical priciple based maths as one of my units next year, as well as statistical process control. There's a hell of a lot of maths to get your head around, but it's by no means impossible.


Learn the very basics and build on it.
 
Have younger people in the UK started saying "math" now? :(

As above, it very much depends what level you're studying at, degree courses can be extremely maths heavy, no idea about college courses.
 
UK-AL05 said:
if you have an equation with multiple components

say 5a^5 + 5b^5,

just do it for each component(The plus separates the components, which are technically called terms), which becomes

25a^4 + 25b^4
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This is not strictly correct - you're taking the derivative with respect to a certain variable and thus the derivative of the other variable is dependent on your mode of differentiation.

e.g. partial differentiation: (partial d)/(partial d)a (5a^5 + 5b^5) = 25a^4
but total differentiation: d/da(5a^5 + 5b^5) = 25a^4 + (25b^4)*(db/da)

OP I wouldn't worry too much about the maths - I would expect that your University will do a lot of maths teaching in the first year and more in the subsequent years. When I was an undergrad they offered a lot of drop-in sessions and other catchup for people who hadn't done maths for a while or for those who were struggling. If you want to get reading this summer, the maths textbook that most undergrads use is by KA Stroud (Engineering Mathematics) - I use one of the same name but different author (CW Evans) and it is excellent as well. Practice is the best way forward!
 
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