[Robert A Cook PE]

Find a way to teach engineering to verbally oriented students who can't learn math by sense of smell.

In many ways I agree: Don't know his school (deliberately concealed! - which is a politically correct way to conceal poor performance, and NOT engineeringly accurate way of concealing FEEDBACK and getting improvement in their product!), but you don't need to know math to be an engineer.

you have to LIVE IT, to understand it intuitively and to be able to USE IT without thinking and fighting it.

Granted math majors, then physics majors, then engineering majors treat math differently in each field - with engineers using it as brute force rather than intrically and intimiately, and we engineers don't play with math the way math majors do (I have a Math/Physics double BS as a daughter, so I know all three disciplines.)

But you have to understand and sense inside your head to movement of the steel, the flow of a current ina wire network, the compression of a screw thread inside a bolt, or the twist of an airflow in an HVAC duct as you design circuits and dams and buildings.

Or they break.

[patton]

Hey robert - want to fight? I dropped out of engineering because it was BORING.

Got a degree in maths, instead - silliest thing I ever did. LOL.

Ah, well. what we don't know as kids...

And the author of this piece knows nothing. What an idiot. LOL.

Oh, look - a chicken!

(/adhd)

[xsmommy]

i believe you, robt. you are the smartest man i know. : )

[sionnsar]

Find a way to teach engineering to verbally oriented students who can't learn math by sense of smell.

I was always poor (but adequate) at math -- except 2nd quarter calculus where I had a teacher who could make it all obvious. I compensated with a dual major and finding Boolean algebra a snap. (which it is...)

[Richard Kimball]

I was a fine arts major in college, my daughter teaches math, and I work at a college. Your post confirms what I have believed for quite a while. People in mathematics and the hard sciences tend to be more creative and original thinkers than people in the fine arts. In the fine arts there's a rigidity of thought, and an imposed political thought process. Because art is subjective (you couldn't sell a Jackson Pollack for fifty bucks if he wasn't famous), appointments are almost entirely political. In engineering and the hard sciences, if you don't do it correctly, the bridge falls down.

I do agree with the author that many lower division courses are taught by assistants, and many of these grad students are sadists who take their anger out on the poor lower division students.

By the way, your post was brilliant. The passion you obviously have for your field is evident.

[Professional Engineer]

I received this from an Architect client of mine

---

Only a “Few Good Men” will get this.

CAST:
MEP Engineer: Jack Nicholson
Architect: Tom Cruise

MEP Engineer: You want answers?

Architect: I think I'm entitled to them.

MEP Engineer: You want answers?!

Architect: I want the truth!

MEP Engineer: You can't HANDLE the truth!!

Son, we live in a world that has CHILLERS, BOILERS AND SWITCHGEAR. And those PIECES OF EQUIPMENT have to be LOCATED IN ROOMS. Who's gonna DESIGN THEM? You? You, MR. ARCHITECT? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.

You weep for LOST PARKING SPACES and you curse the SIZE OF MY GENERATOR. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that THOSE MEP SYSTEMS, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you WANT me on that DESIGN TEAM. You NEED me on that DESIGN TEAM. We use words like DESIGN, CODE, ANALYSIS...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent PROVIDING OWNER COMFORT AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY. You use 'em as a punchline.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain my DESIGN to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very ENVIRONMENT I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a DUCTULATOR and DESIGN a BUILDING SYSTEM. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

Architect : Did you OVERSIZE THE MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL ROOMS?

MEP Engineer : (quietly) I did the job you HIRED me to do.

Architect : Did you OVERSIZE THE MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL ROOMS?!!

MEP Engineer : You're goddamn right I did!!

[Professional Engineer]

But you have to understand and sense inside your head to movement of the steel, the flow of a current ina wire network, the compression of a screw thread inside a bolt, or the twist of an airflow in an HVAC duct as you design circuits and dams and buildings.

Or they break.

Well stated.

[NicknamedBob]

"But you have to understand and sense
inside your head to movement of the steel,
the flow of a current in a wire network,
the compression of a screw thread inside a bolt,
or the twist of an airflow in an HVAC duct
as you design circuits and dams and buildings.

Or they break.

Beautiful, Robert! Just beautiful. *sniff* I love your poetry.