I’ve heard from a few engineering students that you have to take all three calculus’s as any engineer, but some engineering majors don’t actually use all three. One student told me that he used calculus 1 in his civil engineering, but calculus 2 and 3 were a waste of time and he didn’t use them or see them in any of his engineering classes. He said that only electrical engineers used calculus 2.
I thought this sounded fishy. Is it true that some engineering majors don’t use calculus 2 or 3? Do I truly need to learn all three calculus’s?
Yes. And usually Differential Equations too. Engineering curriculum sequences are rigid … check the course lists or (map, flowchart) for your school.
Here’s are some examples
I would be surprised if anyone actually believed that statement. All three calculus sequences, plus differential equations, are invaluable. Is there gonna be a need to use all of them all the time? Maybe not, maybe so.
It’s a moot point, as most engineering majors have to take all calculus sequences (including differential equations).
Your friend is either at a very weak program, in an engineering technology program instead of engineering, or has completely missed the point.
@colorado_mom I know you have to take them, I guess I was just wondering if you actually used them.
@NotYetEngineer It is a moot point. I guess I was just wondering what you guys thought. The civil engineer said he took calculus 2 online, didn’t learn a thing, and said that that was okay. So I was just wondering…
What you ‘need’ varies by ‘what you do’. The university has a pretty good idea about what you might do, and plans a path for you to get there. Knowledge is like an iceberg. 90% of it is unobserved, but critical to the 10% that you see.
Two things stand out about this post, and both of them make me sad.
- You don’t seem enthusiastic about learning a beautiful, helpful and exciting subject.
- You made Calculus plural with an apostrophe and an ‘s’,
@boneh3ad Well more of a casual acquaintance. He sounded very sure of himself, but like I said I thought it sounded fishy… Thanks for your guys input!
@ElMimino It’s not that I’m not enthusiastic, I was trying to figure out if what they said was true. I enjoy math.
Sorry about the apostrophe. I originally wrote calculuses, but on Google Chrome it said it was wrong…
@ElMimino Oooh. I see what you’re saying and I can see how that would be annoying. Sorry.
Calculi, perhaps? 
Strongly echoing what @boneh3ad said:
I can’t imagine any civil or mechanical engineering major would claim that calculus wasn’t important in their classes. How, for example, would a civil or mechanical engineering student in a standard mechanics of materials course be able to begin understanding a fourth-order beam deflection ODE without a solid understanding of multivariable calculus, differential equations, and perhaps a dose of linear algebra?
The thought of an engineering major claiming that calculus isn’t necessary is absurd, to me…
It is important to remember that any given engineering discipline (civil, electrical, whatever) necessarily encompasses a great deal of breadth. This breadth does not appear in the introductory or core courses, starts to appear in electives, and becomes abundantly obvious as you work your way through industry. Thus there are a variety of specializations, each with different requirements - some may require more math than the standard undergrad curriculum includes (yes, even in civil!), others may (as your friend described) use nothing more than basic calculus, if even that!
But yes, you need all three. Why? Because you need to understand the breadth of your field even if you do not explore particular options in depth. Because you need the ability to, later in your career, return to more mathematical roots temporarily even if that is not your bread and butter. Because the mathematical skills you learn in those more advanced courses will make you a better engineer even if you never directly apply them again. And because the vast majority of really GOOD engineering jobs will require every bit of math you have and more.
So your friend is somewhat correct, but only because he is focused on a very low standard of engineer.
This question is about as dumb as the high school student that asks “why do I need to take algebra?”(1) Just because you don’t see the usefulness of it at the time does not mean that the concepts won’t show up later. Even something as simple as area under the curve show up over and over. You may not directly perform the integral, but the concept is valid.
(1) Off topic, but my standard answer to that question is “because english literature is stupid too.” Joke answer, but makes the point that education is useful.
Having suffered thru Calc 1-3 and DE in college I can tell you we were able to calculate the structure of a 5 story concrete building using nothing but a four function calculator (Civil Engineering). A few classes definitely needed calc tho, Plates & Shells, Metal Structures, etc. So it’s kinda useful.
Can you get thru other engineering fundamental courses like Thermodynamics and the like or advanced Physics without a heavy dose of Calc? probably not. Not they way they teach them.
Do they need to teach it with the rigor (lolz) and enthusiasm (lolz) that they are? I’m not sure. Could they make it easier to understand? yes, in my opinion…
XKCD has it right.
What does this mean?? “Calculate the structure”?
I know you can do statics with nothing but algebra, but I am pretty sure that strain and sheer require calc, yes?
@cosmicfish Mostly, I’d say, for statics, as long as there are only point masses or uniformly or linearly distributed loads, but any other type of distributed load (like a load described by a quadratic or cubic function) would require calc, yeah?
Standard requirement at most schools is Calc 1, 2, and 3, Diff Eq, and one extra math class (e.g. linear algebra, complex variables, statistics, etc)
I have never heard of a program that doesn’t require the entire calculus sequence.
I never realized there was more than one. My teacher always just called it “The Calculus”.