<p>Yo, my dream is to be a part of a team that builds rollercoasters. I dont know if it's realistic, but I'd like to go for mechanical or structural engineering and see what happens. But which of these diciplines gives the best chance of me beeing a rollercoaster-designer?
I have read a lot of both structural and mechanical engineering, but I haven't gotten a good idea of which of them is best suited for the task. Obviously they probably need both of these types of engineers for the task, but which one of them is most likely to be most important and play a bigger role in the project?</p>
<p>I think that instead of trying to find out who is more likely to be hired, you should think about what to do if you don't get a job at a rollercoaster design firm. If you have to do something outside of rollercoaster design, would you prefer to deal with topics in mechanical, or civil (structural) engineering? These firms are quite rare and it's a good idea to think about alternatives first.</p>
<p>it depends on which part of the rollercoaster you want to design...obviously structural engineer if you want to work on the structure of the track</p>
<p>There are so few roller coaster design firms in the country that the chances of being hired by one is pretty slim, so definitely have a backup plan. </p>
<p>You should try looking at the websites of those firms and see what kind of positions appear the most in their employment section.</p>
<p>Yeah I know the chance is very small of getting a job in this field, but hey I at least need to try.
I really don't know any backup plan. I have read so much on the department of structural engineering and also at the department of mechanical engineering, and I really can't seem to find one that is better than the other. Calculating forces in structures looks really interesting, but ME has a lot of interesting physics focusing on cracks, fatigue and calculating forces with these. Are there any big differences when working with civil structures and mechanical structures that can help me find out what is best for me?, like differences in the amount of math and mechanics you get to use?, or maybe other differences?
Right now both mechanical and structural engineering has appealing subjects for me, so is it really that stupid to let the chances of employment in a roller-coaster design company decide my choice?:D</p>
<p>Instead of focusing on the details of which field uses which kind of physics, you should focus on what each field deals with. In addition to rollercoaster design, would you like to work on robotics, aircraft design, or engine design? Or would you rather deal with designing bridges and skyscrapers? Research both of these fields and see what else interests you. </p>
<p>Bare in mind that any large machine will also need structural engineers in addition to mechanical and electrical engineers, such as designing an aircraft.</p>
<p>Thanks steevee you give really good advice, BTW a rollercoaster-design company said the same thing as you said about a backup plan on their webpage.
My problem is however that I really don't care if I am working on big structures or complex machines as long as I get to learn the mechanics of how to world works. So maybe if someone bothered they could explain to me the difference mechanical-problems in the two fields, and give me some examples.(Obviously not about fluid-dynamics since that only has anything to do with mechanical engineering.)</p>