<p>Would you recommend a non-engineering major to take an intro engineering class (mechanics) just out of intellectual curiosity? I am a junior math major and I have no aspirations as a professional engineer, but I have been curious about engineering for quite some time. It might be fun. </p>
<p>When I mentioned it to one of my math professors today (who is usually very open about other fields), he started laughing and said something along the lines of, "At least that will get that applied nonsense out of your system."</p>
<p>That got me wondering why I have never heard of someone taking engineering classes for fun. Maybe physics, CS or math, but not engineering. Is there some big dark secret I am not aware of?</p>
<p>Probably just that physics, CS and math are higher level subjects than engineering and so can be applied to a broader range of topics, while engineering is more of an applied mix of math and physics, so it doesn’t work as well the other way. If you really are interested, then take it.</p>
<p>I am not sure what you mean by mechanics though. Usually mechanics is an entry level physics course. The only other class that you could say is intro type material is solid mechanics, which might be tough if you have never taken those entry level physics classes. Still, if you are interested, then why not take it? Especially if you could take it pass/fail.</p>
<p>Huh. Good question. I’d be interested to hear the answer myself.</p>
<p>Being a CS/Physics double major, I can’t say for sure, but knowing several people in engineering and having seen some coursework… it seems a little dry and tedious compared to some of my CS and Physics work. Dry and tedious how? That’s harder to say. I’ll leave it at that and not speculate, but I wonder how engineering majors who have seen some CS or Physics work would compare them to engineering… and what they think of my take on it.</p>
<p>Having worked with the math department here, I can say for certain that many of the professors here have the same attitude, and as best I can figure, it’s because they see engineers as glorified mechanics with calculator training.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d say go for it. You should know by the end of the first week whether or not you want to bother with it, and that’s usually soon enough to drop if need be. Maybe sign up for the Physics version as well and drop whichever one seems like it will be less interesting (the Physics department should be offering something in Mechanics, I’d think)</p>
<p>boneh3ad, the course is called Mechanics (I double-checked). The course description says its an introduction to statics and dynamics, which makes much more sense for an engineering class :)</p>
<p>Ok, I guess to add to my post, in light of AMT’s post… I took a few extra physics classes as an undergrad towards minoring in physics and then opted not to do it simply so I could focus on fluid mechanics and get into grad school without the extra semester I would have needed for the physics.</p>
<p>That said, the biggest difference was that physics is taught at a higher level. I don’t mean that in a way that implies it is harder or superior or anything. Simply put, physics is much more theoretical. It really just depends on where your interests lie, and in grad school, sometimes the line gets smeared a bit. Engineering is just applied physics.</p>
<p>b@r!um, that is kind of interesting. It must be for engineering majors that are not going to be using those very much, because combining them would be pretty much impossible if you wanted a truly rigorous class in each, as some majors such as mechanical engineers normally take.</p>
<p>Statics is very easy (though it always seems harder when you take it than it does a year later) and dynamics is tough, but much more interesting (in my opinion). If it is all in one class, most likely it isn’t going to be as hard as the versions I had where it was split into two classes. If you are truly interested, then I would say go for it.</p>
<p>At Auburn, there is one course in Mechanics that the EE’s and CompE’s have to take (and maybe another couple of majors or so), and then they split it up for the AeroE’s and MechE’s. Then again, there’s usually one EE class that MechE’s and AeroE’s take, and two that the EEs take. It works out.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, the department is offering full-semester classes in both statics and dynamics which have this course as a prerequisite. Seems that students can opt to study the material in more depth if it is relevant to their area of engineering.</p>
<p>Not that it matters to me. If I am only taking one or two engineering classes, I might as well take classes that do a little bit of everything :)</p>