<p>How hard are these two classes? Taking them next semester and I'm wondering how difficult they were for you? Any resources that will help me with the classes?</p>
<p>They are hard. Work lots of problems and go in for help when you need it. Study groups can be very helpful, also.</p>
<p>There isn’t a good way to just tell you how hard they are. What is hard for one person is easy for another. I, for example, find fluid mechanics of the introductory variety to be rather easy while many others find it difficult. Suffice it to say they are both core classes that will most likely require a lot of work, but their difficulty will vary by person.</p>
<p>Fluids is more fun if that helps.</p>
<p>Mechanics and Fluids are two totally different concepts, so it’s like comparing apples and oranges. It depends on your aptitude and the quality of the instruction. They’re not VERY difficult as they are fundamental mechanical engineering concepts, but you will need to understand them to build the foundation for your engineering education.</p>
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<p>This couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s all the underlying subject of mechanics and the equations can be derived from the same first principles using only a different constitutive equation. They are actually intimately related. They probably won’t touch on that much at the introductory level, but it’s all continuum mechanics nevertheless.</p>
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I always thought the opposite. Maybe that was my problem in fluids.</p>
<p>Kidding aside, they both come down to understanding the basic principles. I am still kicking myself for missing a fluids final exam question where the only thing I needed to know was “mu”=du/dy. The question was literally aimed at identifying who could simplify back to the basics. </p>
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<p>Sounds like you could still use some studying. ;-)</p>
<p>tau = mu*du/dy</p>
<p>You’re a lot of fun at parties, aren’t you boneh3ad? lol 
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<p>At this point in time, most of the parties I go to are either a bunch of other PhD/future PhD fluid mechanicians, family, or a bunch of nurses. The first group is just as bad as me, I turn it off around the second, and I don’t fit in with the third anyway. Ha!</p>
<p>Crap. You’re right. The problem was to compute the drag on a plate with a linear velocity profile and all I needed was the shear force. Can you tell that I find solid mechanics easier ? </p>
<p>Like I said to the OP, it all comes down to the strengths of each person.</p>
<p>Lake Jr. enjoyed his intro Fluid Mechanics course quite a bit and he established a great rapport with the Professor. He talked about a few basic concepts with me and I got a headache and had no earthly idea of the concepts, of course!</p>
<p>Much depends on the school, the prof, and the student strengths. </p>
<p>I think I liked my Fluid Mechanics (CivE/MechE) course 30 years ago. But a senior elective, I think called Fluid Dynamics (supersonic flow etc) was not fun… some of my classmates and I referred to it as “Fluid Traumatics”. That was partly due to material, partly due to a teacher who seemed more interested in research than teaching. </p>
<p>Fluid Mechanics was not too bad but I’ve heard Thermodynamics was bad. Luckily if you take one you don’t have to take the other at my school. </p>
<p>Lake Jr.'s school requires both Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics. He says he was up until the wee hours the other night studying for Thermo, a horse of a different color than FM in difficulty.</p>
<p>First, considering how much fluid mechanics relies on thermodynamics, it seems awfully strange that thermo wouldn’t be a prerequisite.</p>
<p>Second, thermo gets its reputation for several reasons. It’s not harder than any other course, but it I often the first major technical class that students take within their major, so there is an adjustment period for many of them to get up to speed with how such courses work. The topic are also somewhat scattered at times and there are a lot of topics to cover, so it requires a lot of mental organization. The actual technically content isn’t bad at all.</p>
<p>I personally found that the concepts in thermo were not that difficult (even Maxwell’s relations and the topics based on them), but the thing is that you basically have to be right. You have to use the correct method in the correct situation, or you are pretty much completely wrong.</p>
<p>My major was not Mechanical Engineering but at my school we had to take a little bit of every other engineering major. So I can see why we can’t spend all the time to take the necessary prerequisite. I hate to take Material Science, Industrial Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, on top of all the specialty of other EE subfield such as Power, Analog, Communications, Signal processing, Microwave, etc… On top of computer/electronics courses. Way to many courses to take and not enough time. Luckily it was a quarter system so the school can squeeze in many classes.</p>
<p>Right, I just have a hard time imagining fluid mechanics without any sort of thermo background, and in order to give you that background as an introductory section of a fluids course, I feel like it would be short-changing the students who are in there who need to know fluid mechanics as part of their actual major. It just seems odd.</p>