<p>Has anyone taken an intro engineering class (mechanics in my case) 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 anyone 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>I took an intro to engineering class and honestly it wasn’t very stimulating at all. You scratch the surface of what the different disciplines do, and that’s about it.</p>
<p>You might consider taking an Intro to a specific engineering class. For instance my roommate took Intro to Mechanical Engineering, where you learn a lot more about Mech and you also do a lab once a week. It usually involves drawing models or something, since engineers (especially mechanical and civil) need good drawing skills.</p>
<p>edit: I think the main reason for it is that the “real” engineering, y’know the fun stuff doesn’t start till you’re a junior at most schools. The first two years are usually just slogging out general education requirements and taking all that god damned math.</p>
<p>My freshman year I was required to take two Intro to XYZ Engineering courses. I first took Materials Engineering since I knew that’s what I wanted to do, and I loved it. Second semester I took Intro to Mechanical Engineering since that’s what all my friends were taking, and I hated it. The professor just talked about these robots he built and junk like that non-stop. Then again, my friends that took Intro to MSE with me thought it was one of the most boring classes ever, so I suppose it all matters where your interests lie.</p>
<p>Also, I’d say intro engineering classes are usually more fun than their counterpart in physics/chem/math since you’re almost guaranteed a lab component with a project that’s not too difficult and pretty fun.</p>
<p>As others have sort of alluded to, none of the very interesting engineering classes come until your upper division work, as most of the lower div engineering classes (in my case) have just been sort of beefed up physics classes. If you want to take an engineering class for fun that might actually be practical, take something like an introductory programming class. Some computer science departments are actually based in a university’s math department, so you may be able to even knock off some credit towards your major.</p>
<p>I have already taken 4 CS classes. And 3 physics classes. I liked advanced classical mechanics, but I didn’t care so much about electromagnetism or quantum mechanics.</p>
<p>I thought I might like our intro engineering class because it’s an intro to statics and dynamics, which is right in line with the physics and math classes I liked. All of the upper-level mechanical engineering classes have this class as a prerequisite.</p>
Engineering majors are usually students who like math/science, but also wanted a practical and lucrative career. So they take physics/math classes for fun, since they like that stuff. but the students studying other science majors usually don’t bother with engineering classes, figuring, why bother if I’m not going to become an engineer? </p>
<p>but I think taking an engineering class is a good idea for some math/physics students. it will expose you to more applied aspects of the field as opposed to just theoretical stuff. So take the Intro Engineering class if you’re interested.
Yeah i’ve heard this as well. but if you’re a physics major you’ve already had to take all the math.</p>
<p>I don’t think this is what you are looking for but I’ll throw it out there anyway. Try looking at some of the more abstract listings in the EE dept., like control theory, digital signal processing, coding theory, or information theory. Those courses have nothing to do with electricity and are pretty mathematical subjects.</p>
<p>If you want to do the mechanics stuff, I’d look at upper-level courses in those departments. I don’t know too much about the mechanical engineering curriculum but with my experience in electrical engineering, I found that in the required coursework you take multiple passes at the same material with increasing mathematical sophistication. You’ve probably got the math chops, so you may be able to skip to the upper-level stuff.</p>
<p>I say this because I suspect that you’ll be bored to tears in the intro engineering classes.</p>
<p>intro mechanics classes don’t have anything to do with engineering. They’re just physics classes with an engineering touch. And they’re very boring. If you have an open option take something interesting; in the arts or something.</p>
<p>Things are going to vary between schools of course, but IMHO statics is not a particularly illuminating part of engineering. There is one basic principle: all forces sum to zero, all torques sum to zero.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Those will all probably require at minimum a passing familiarity with linear system theory. No doubt anyone with a math background could pick that up easily in a weekend, but just so it’s said.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about ME so I can’t comment. EE courses (the ones not having anything to do with circuits) will be the most mathematical engineering you can find - I promise, you’ll have a hard time cracking those “applied” jokes after :)</p>
<p>I know this is not what you are looking for at all, but some nice theory classes in CS could be interesting as well. If the CS you have done is mostly programming based, a class in algorithms or even complexity theory or computability theory (first order logic, godel, etc) would be very accessible to a math major.</p>
Accessible indeed, but so accessible that I would be bored to tears. I considered taking Theory of Computation next semester until I looked at the textbook and noticed that I already knew 2/3 of the material. I don’t mind taking an easy class (heck, I would LOVE to take an easy class on top of my grad-level math classes!), but I do not want to sit through the lectures when I already know most of what the professor is about to say (and in a class of ~10 students, attendance is a prerequisite for passing :)).</p>