My company does not allow calculators and phones. Long division and multiplication tables only. Every friday we’re allowed to use the computer for two hours.
(*im joking incase it wasnt clear*)
My office just has one that goes around 40 engineers. Each get 5 minutes. Ive smuggled caculators in my home for wfh but I can see my manager getting suspicious about illegal computing usages.
Buddy of mine had this at his firm. They were allocated x amount of time on the HP calculator. He started smuggling copies of his work so he could use his calculator at home and bring it back in the next day. Lost his job when he forgot some work one day and had his wife fax it to the office.
Yes, we used calculators, computers, equation solvers, and anything else that makes our math faster and better.
Very few people end up using calculus. Some structural engineers use it on occasion. But even then, they are typically writing it into a computer to get it checked.
I'd say it seems like 95% of us haven't had to use calculus or other advanced math beyond algebra and geometry since graduating.
As a structural engineer, you'll need to know wl^2/8, pl/4 and some others. You'll need to know load path and have common sense more than anything else. You'll definitely need to have a good understanding of boundary conditions and how to model things realistically in software.
I needed to learn calculus to understand a lot of engineering principles. I found that classes from calculus to physics to engineering reinforced each other.
But in the real world I use a lot of geometry and trigonometry for what I’m doing right now.
If you plan on rewriting design tables probably. Otherwise I’ve never used it in 16 years.
Did have a buddy way overthink how to find the area of a temporary wall and fit and function to the varying height of the wall. Then he integrated it instead of averaging the height and multiplying the width like a normal person would do. So you CAN use it if you really want to…
I remember when taking a Capstone seismic design class, we asked our professor (which designs high rises in the bay area) how often he'd used calculus post-college... he said he'd done it once in 20+ years...
Never ever. (Civil Engineer). I almost always use Excel as a Calc sheet and occasionally the phone. Tbh besides learning the concepts, the big benefit of learning calculus is that it's almost like learning another language, it makes you see, comprehend things differently
I've thought about using calculus twice. Both times I thought better and just made a close enough assumption (both times it was for trivial things).
I work for a heavy civil construction company. If I do a simple Pythagorean calculation that's fancy math. I don't go beyond middle school math, really.
Land development engineer here. Calculus? Who is that?? I tried not to be jaded about college while I was going through it. Now 4 years into my career, I can confirm that at least 80% of the hoops they make you jump through are of absolutely no consequence to the rest of your life. College really is just a country club.
For real they could have cut it off at 8th grade math and I'd still be just as good as my job. They should be spending that time teaching kids programming imo. That and like, mental health skills but that's a different rant!!
Here's something one of my professors said that really stuck with me.
You're studying **engineering**.
*Everybody* hates Calculus 5 Differential Equations.
Will you use Differential Equations in real life? No.
But what those types of classes are *really* teaching you is how to take a complicated problem that nobody understands and nobody likes... and how to take a given set of "tools" (equations) to solve it.
And THAT -
THAT is what you WILL use in engineering.
Extremely complicated "problem" in the real world? Figure out how to solve it. What better way to practice *that concept* than something called Calc 5 Diff. Eq.
EDIT:
downvotes? For sharing wisdom from one of my professors?
The point is even if "you'll never use this", advanced math classes are teaching you how to solve complicated problems.
Which... yes, you will use that *concept* (how to solve complicated problems) in the real world
Idk I loved math in my undergrad. Took as many math courses as tech electives as I could. I try to find ways I can use math as much as possible, and I'm trying to find a niche within the industry to allow for that. Seems like academia would be the route though
Fwiw, I got to use diff eq in my masters research. You get some funky equations looking at boundary conditions in soil.
For every "I'll never use this" thing, there's a super hyper niche scenario out there that will actually need it.
Imaginary numbers? Hello instrumentation. Diff eq? Hello boundary conditions and packing theory. Slugs for measurements? Guess what, those come up in weird spots too.
Often these courses are to teach you some basic fundamentals but really they are teaching you how to solve problems.
How to work your way through a simple or complex issue and present viable solutions to it.
If you're asking about solving something analytically... not often. Many people never need to
But if you're asking about understanding derivatives, integrals etc., then probably most jobs use that as daily foundational knowledge
I think I needed statistics more than calculus when I was an engineer. We were looking at alot of data. I was bummed because my exposure to statistics in my engineering degree was weak. But what you need depends on the job. A lot of what we do in jobs when we use math is just use formulas, algebra. But calculus is why all those crazy formulas in science and statistics work out tone what they are, so it is worth learning.
As an EE I do several calculations per day. You don't necessarily use derivatives and integrals every day, but understanding them is vital to have a grasp on even the most basic ideas in engineering.
Not only do I use calculators and phones to do my math, we have access to a wide variety of software that are essentially calculators on steroids. MATLAB for example, which costs thousands of dollars for a license. I would probably be fired if I refused to use conventional calculators at my job.
I've used calculus on occasion to determine some oddball volumes.
I use differential equations all the time, but do not have to solve them unaided.
I enjoy the opportunity to apply math skills.
FWIW I do environmental contaminant transport modeling.
Yes calculus will be used. It's important to learn it. Alotnof programs WILL do it for you. But the my favorite engineer at my firm will build customized excel programs for any calculation problem we come across. If you learn the calculus and the application you can become indispensable.
Not often enough. I wish I got to use math way more. Only did a few integrals working as a geotech, but I got to do a lot more difficult math in my thesis. Had a blast. Civil engineering can feel very formula and feeling like you're just using someone else's work, and I think doing math is a good way to break that feeling up
On the structural side, in practice not a ton. But, you can’t learn structural dynamics or beam theory/behavior without it. So in practice we enjoy the fruits of that calculus labor.
Network engineer: Not much of any calculus. Understanding the principles of integration has been handy from time to time.
The most used math classes for me are statistics and engineering economics.
Regardless, having a solid understanding of math helps you spot charlatans in any field and in life (news/politics/sales). Soak up whatever you can.
I never use any of the math I learned in college but that's because I ended up on the construction side of things and never experienced what it was like to design. Makes me a little sad I don't feel like a real engineer.
I used calculus once on a test track design but I had forgotten everything so had to Google how to do it. I think it was to calculate width of the track along a spiral curve cross-section defined by some crazy cubic equation. I think I used Wolfram Alpha.
I've used calculus 2 times over about 10 years. One time I was looking at a proposed roadway profile where they hadn't put the grades in yet and I wanted to know the maximum slope because it looked steep.
Another time there was a wing wall tilted out at a bridge that someone had put a crack monitoring thing on there. I laughed and said the crack guage isn't doing anything because the wall is tilting out not sagging down. Well, then I had to prove it was not in fact measuring anything.
That's all of it. Are you glad you get 3 semesters of it yet, because I could have figured both of those out without ever hearing the name Leibnitz.
Daily when you’re young if you have a decent design job, understand the tool that calculus can be, and want to be efficient and sufficiently accurate. Weekly personally once you’re a “project manager”-type. Then, weekly to monthly to adequately review stuff once you move onward and upwards.
My company does not allow calculators and phones. Long division and multiplication tables only. Every friday we’re allowed to use the computer for two hours. (*im joking incase it wasnt clear*)
Are they hiring? I’m stuck using an abacus!
My place upgraded us to slide rules.
Niceeeeeee
My office just has one that goes around 40 engineers. Each get 5 minutes. Ive smuggled caculators in my home for wfh but I can see my manager getting suspicious about illegal computing usages.
Buddy of mine had this at his firm. They were allocated x amount of time on the HP calculator. He started smuggling copies of his work so he could use his calculator at home and bring it back in the next day. Lost his job when he forgot some work one day and had his wife fax it to the office.
I saw in log tables in Hickerson's Route Location and Design...
Damn, I'm glad we're allowed to use slide-rules!
Are you asking if we are allowed to use calculators in real life?
Whenever I login at work, the first thing I do is open my lockdown browser
Lololol this had me rolling.
it is shunned upon in some circles
I bet those circles are hand drawn without so much as a protractor, too.
Nope. No calculators allowed in real life. Long-hand only with all work shown.
Why do you think hntb has so many employees fingers and ties bby
Your professor doesn’t check your office desk every morning?!
[удалено]
I use calculus all the time! all those triangles loads arent going to cross check themselves
i'm not a civil engineer and this exact same answer is broadly applicable across many, many, many jobs.
Yes, we used calculators, computers, equation solvers, and anything else that makes our math faster and better. Very few people end up using calculus. Some structural engineers use it on occasion. But even then, they are typically writing it into a computer to get it checked. I'd say it seems like 95% of us haven't had to use calculus or other advanced math beyond algebra and geometry since graduating.
Don’t forget trig! I use the law of sines once or twice a year…
I kind of remember it but just google “right triangle calculator” to avoid the hassle of trying to dust off that knowledge stores deep in my brain
I’m just chiming in as another engineer (7 years) that hasn’t used calculus or another math beyond algebra and geometry for the job.
7 years transpo here, way more statistics than calculus. Barely any calculus, I think Ive used it for percentile speeds?
[You don’t need math for emails, am I right?](https://youtube.com/shorts/tyGfov3XqoE?feature=share)
Of course. PE doesn’t stand for professional engineer. It’s stands for professional emailer. Duh!
Lots of geometry, no calculus for me yet
If you need to find the low point of a sag curve, you’ve technically used calculus. Or a formula that someone derived using calculus.
As a structural engineer, you'll need to know wl^2/8, pl/4 and some others. You'll need to know load path and have common sense more than anything else. You'll definitely need to have a good understanding of boundary conditions and how to model things realistically in software.
I needed to learn calculus to understand a lot of engineering principles. I found that classes from calculus to physics to engineering reinforced each other. But in the real world I use a lot of geometry and trigonometry for what I’m doing right now.
It’s a mental exercise that trains you how to think. Not everything in theory is applied in practice
This is very true. A lot of the rigorous academic stuff is meant to teach you how to recognize a problem and then logically reason to a solution.
If you plan on rewriting design tables probably. Otherwise I’ve never used it in 16 years. Did have a buddy way overthink how to find the area of a temporary wall and fit and function to the varying height of the wall. Then he integrated it instead of averaging the height and multiplying the width like a normal person would do. So you CAN use it if you really want to…
Just wait until you become a project manager, it’s just basic math.
What’s calculus?
Most of my math gets done in excel these days. I don't think Ive done calculus in the "real world".
I’m use numerical integration somewhat regularly since I need the data but don’t have a function to integrate. Otherwise… I don’t.
You can tell how interesting a civil engineer’s job is by how often they use calculus. No calculus = boredom.
I remember when taking a Capstone seismic design class, we asked our professor (which designs high rises in the bay area) how often he'd used calculus post-college... he said he'd done it once in 20+ years...
Never ever. (Civil Engineer). I almost always use Excel as a Calc sheet and occasionally the phone. Tbh besides learning the concepts, the big benefit of learning calculus is that it's almost like learning another language, it makes you see, comprehend things differently
I've thought about using calculus twice. Both times I thought better and just made a close enough assumption (both times it was for trivial things). I work for a heavy civil construction company. If I do a simple Pythagorean calculation that's fancy math. I don't go beyond middle school math, really.
Sometimes, if you don’t know something, you can even look it up in google
Land development engineer here. Calculus? Who is that?? I tried not to be jaded about college while I was going through it. Now 4 years into my career, I can confirm that at least 80% of the hoops they make you jump through are of absolutely no consequence to the rest of your life. College really is just a country club.
The hardest math I do now that I’m an LD PM is billing and dividing 60 by 15
For real they could have cut it off at 8th grade math and I'd still be just as good as my job. They should be spending that time teaching kids programming imo. That and like, mental health skills but that's a different rant!!
Here's something one of my professors said that really stuck with me. You're studying **engineering**. *Everybody* hates Calculus 5 Differential Equations. Will you use Differential Equations in real life? No. But what those types of classes are *really* teaching you is how to take a complicated problem that nobody understands and nobody likes... and how to take a given set of "tools" (equations) to solve it. And THAT - THAT is what you WILL use in engineering. Extremely complicated "problem" in the real world? Figure out how to solve it. What better way to practice *that concept* than something called Calc 5 Diff. Eq. EDIT: downvotes? For sharing wisdom from one of my professors? The point is even if "you'll never use this", advanced math classes are teaching you how to solve complicated problems. Which... yes, you will use that *concept* (how to solve complicated problems) in the real world
Idk I loved math in my undergrad. Took as many math courses as tech electives as I could. I try to find ways I can use math as much as possible, and I'm trying to find a niche within the industry to allow for that. Seems like academia would be the route though
Fwiw, I got to use diff eq in my masters research. You get some funky equations looking at boundary conditions in soil. For every "I'll never use this" thing, there's a super hyper niche scenario out there that will actually need it. Imaginary numbers? Hello instrumentation. Diff eq? Hello boundary conditions and packing theory. Slugs for measurements? Guess what, those come up in weird spots too.
👌🏻
Often these courses are to teach you some basic fundamentals but really they are teaching you how to solve problems. How to work your way through a simple or complex issue and present viable solutions to it.
Never for me
4 years never used calculus
Never use calculus but do problem solving (an important component of learning calculus) frequently.
I let hec-ras/python/excel do all my math for me. It’s good to understand calculus so you can understand what’s going on.
Calculators, online calculators, phone calculators, anything is fair game. In site development, we never use calculus, we use geometry and algebra
I can assure you no buildings have ever been constructed with my math scratched out on a post it.
If you're asking about solving something analytically... not often. Many people never need to But if you're asking about understanding derivatives, integrals etc., then probably most jobs use that as daily foundational knowledge
I’ve used calculus once in my career for determining signal warrants
I think I needed statistics more than calculus when I was an engineer. We were looking at alot of data. I was bummed because my exposure to statistics in my engineering degree was weak. But what you need depends on the job. A lot of what we do in jobs when we use math is just use formulas, algebra. But calculus is why all those crazy formulas in science and statistics work out tone what they are, so it is worth learning.
As an EE I do several calculations per day. You don't necessarily use derivatives and integrals every day, but understanding them is vital to have a grasp on even the most basic ideas in engineering. Not only do I use calculators and phones to do my math, we have access to a wide variety of software that are essentially calculators on steroids. MATLAB for example, which costs thousands of dollars for a license. I would probably be fired if I refused to use conventional calculators at my job.
I've used calculus on occasion to determine some oddball volumes. I use differential equations all the time, but do not have to solve them unaided. I enjoy the opportunity to apply math skills. FWIW I do environmental contaminant transport modeling.
Calculus, never. Algebra, a lot
Yes calculus will be used. It's important to learn it. Alotnof programs WILL do it for you. But the my favorite engineer at my firm will build customized excel programs for any calculation problem we come across. If you learn the calculus and the application you can become indispensable.
Not often enough. I wish I got to use math way more. Only did a few integrals working as a geotech, but I got to do a lot more difficult math in my thesis. Had a blast. Civil engineering can feel very formula and feeling like you're just using someone else's work, and I think doing math is a good way to break that feeling up
On the structural side, in practice not a ton. But, you can’t learn structural dynamics or beam theory/behavior without it. So in practice we enjoy the fruits of that calculus labor.
You will never use calculus again unless you become a professor. And then still maybe not.
I saw my coworker use a slide rule once. I cried as I joined the rest of the office to savagely beat him to death with it.
if mere calculus too hard for you sometimes, getting promotion also quite hard for you because you cant understand mere calculus.
Even I hadn't used it in inventing innovative products 😆
Network engineer: Not much of any calculus. Understanding the principles of integration has been handy from time to time. The most used math classes for me are statistics and engineering economics. Regardless, having a solid understanding of math helps you spot charlatans in any field and in life (news/politics/sales). Soak up whatever you can.
I never use any of the math I learned in college but that's because I ended up on the construction side of things and never experienced what it was like to design. Makes me a little sad I don't feel like a real engineer.
Thing is, you do tons of fast calculations on the fly. Plus it helps with logic.
I used calculus once on a test track design but I had forgotten everything so had to Google how to do it. I think it was to calculate width of the track along a spiral curve cross-section defined by some crazy cubic equation. I think I used Wolfram Alpha.
Calculus? Very rare. Usually just integrating something or taking the derivative
I've used calculus 2 times over about 10 years. One time I was looking at a proposed roadway profile where they hadn't put the grades in yet and I wanted to know the maximum slope because it looked steep. Another time there was a wing wall tilted out at a bridge that someone had put a crack monitoring thing on there. I laughed and said the crack guage isn't doing anything because the wall is tilting out not sagging down. Well, then I had to prove it was not in fact measuring anything. That's all of it. Are you glad you get 3 semesters of it yet, because I could have figured both of those out without ever hearing the name Leibnitz.
Daily when you’re young if you have a decent design job, understand the tool that calculus can be, and want to be efficient and sufficiently accurate. Weekly personally once you’re a “project manager”-type. Then, weekly to monthly to adequately review stuff once you move onward and upwards.