THe Math involved 1

[nskkam]

I am looking into going into aeronautical engineering and I want to know the level of math that you should study to excell in the profession. I want to prepare myself ahead of time and learn all the math before I start my Masters.

 

[rb1957]

after x+n years in the business (airplane structures design) most of the calcs i do could be done with high school math (calculus, trig., matrix methods).

the math is simple, but knowing how to apply it is the tricky part.

 

[nskkam]

I see, so no quantam mechanics or physics involved? I love physics, and what if I was to go into pupulsion would I need a chem degree also?

 

[btrueblood]

Uhh. Rb1957 is talking about the math he actually uses in his job. You will need a lot of advanced math to get a MS degree in aeronautics, at least I did. The Uni actually made an advanced math series (3 quarters worth) a requirement for graduation. Topics included non-linear diff. equations, complex variable analysis, numerical methods, amongst a slew of others, and all of it taught by evil math prof's. who seemed to feel their job was to conduct a weed-out course. Homework (weekly) ran to 25 and 30 pages. Hated it, especially series expansion solutions to PDE's, and decided then (near the end of the last quarter) to just not bother studying it, after having too many brain cells get twisted into knots figuring out Bessel functions. Of course, immediately after graduation, my 1st task at my new job was to solve acoustic fields inside of cylinders (rocket engine combustion chambers), which requires {cue Psycho music here} Bessel functions.

Moral: you can't have too much math. Every now and then, the advanced stuff helps in figuring out tricky problems that others have ignored as "too difficult". And every time somebody tells me that a problem "must be solved numerically", I pull out one or two Russian aeronautics papers from the '80's. They never had the numbers of computers that Americans did, and thus they spent a lot of time and effort coming up with "classical" and closed-form solutions to problems that us Yankees were solving numerically...

 

[SWhit]

Just check the aero program at any school and you will see something along the lines of 4 semesters of calculus, 3 semesters of physics, at least 1 semester of differential equations, and probably another math or 2. Most don't even count algebra and trig which must be understood to grasp the others.

While many of us don't use a lot of math day to day, you must have a grasp of advanced math to understand almost any concept in the aero field.

Your second post mentions an interest in propulsion, in this business that usually means turbine engines, parts rotating at high speed have vibration issues, vibrations was one of the most mathematically intensive subjects in our aero curriculum.

I agree with btrueblood you can’t have too much math.

 

[IRstuff]

Depends on the program:

Physics 1 -- kinematics, energy, etc.
Physics 2 -- Electriciy & Magnetism, Quantum Mechanics

Math 1 -- General Calculus
Math 2 -- Linear Algebra
Applied Math 95 -- Intro to Complex Variables

TTFN

 

[GregLocock]

I'm in automotive, not aerospace, but have 3 maths textbooks open on my desk, and a couple of stats books within reach.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[prost]

If you hate math, maybe systems engineering is more in line with your interests and career path. Even if very high level of applied math is not used on the job, there's still a lot of very high level of applied math at the undergraduate and graduate level in most universities (if you are aero, most companies in the US expect you will pursue the graduate degree, so get used to that idea).

Mathematics is the language of physics and engineering; it would seem to me to be a very difficult task to do well in physics or engineering without understanding the fundamental language, mathematics.

 

[nskkam]

Okay..I really love airplanes, I mean I just love them. Working with them or designing them to go faster would be amazing.

Is being an aeronautical engineer sitting at a desk with loads of paper with math equations to solve or do you get a chance to visit the assembly line, or wind tunnel and conduct tests and work with design teams to develop new parts.

 

[rb1957]

depends ...
most likely if you work for one of the large companies (Boeing, Lockheed, ...) ... you're just too small, and they are too large for you to do much more than a "small" job; but then you are working on large scale projects (787, ...).

within large companies the best places to see more than a "small" technical job would be ground test, where you can design something, build it (well, oversee it being built), and use it; but then you're working on test rigs, rather than designing airplanes.

if you don't mind conceptual studies, try out advanced design; but then you're working with potenital airplanes, rather than aluminium ones.

smaller companies (Gulfstream, Bombardier) allow you to see more of the project, but it is very easy to get into a "small" technical job without much of a "big picture" view.

innovative companies (Rutan, Eclipse) might allow you a participate on a wider front.

but if you want to work if Al planes, and participate in all aspects of the engineering of the planes, i'd point you towards the very small mod shops around the country. these guys modify 'planes for special purposes and special customer needs (the after market of planes if you will). with these companies you can expect to see all aspects of your design; but, of course, you're aren't dealing with large original designs (smaller design projects with very different design constraints).

good luck

 

[BigBadJet]

It's not a design field, but there's good work to be had at the airlines. I "back doored" my way into flight operations and performance engineering by work experience, and am chipping away at an AE degree now.

Flight Ops engineering is really interesting since you're concerned with predicting the behavior of the airplane for a given condition. A lot of what we do in Ops boils down to "what can the airplane do if we lose an engine at the worst possible point?" We also do a lot to optimize performance within the constraints of regulations and company policies. Anyway, the math isn't very difficult but there's no getting around Calc to get the degree.

But that's just me. I'm really fascinated by the performance of the completed aircraft much more than in how certain components may be designed (the wing being an exception). Once my degree is finished, it'd be interesting to pursue Flight Test engineering.