• Question: How does the principles of science and mathematics apply to your everyday tasks?

    Asked by madalinaf to Ben, Dan, Samer on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Dan Weatherill

      Dan Weatherill answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I spend a lot of time writing computer simulations to (hopefully) model the real life performance of the detectors which I investigate. These involve a lot of fairly complicated physics and mathematics. Every day I basically do a lot of the things I learned how to do in labs during my physics degree.
      And maths is absolutely essential all day every day for any kind of engineering I imagine. It’s really useful to have a good grasp on how all the numbers your equipment tell you actually relate to real life and each other. And you have to be able to estimate in your head whether an answer is reasonable, or you’ve set something up in the wrong way.

    • Photo: Ben Drumm

      Ben Drumm answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      So – at school we learnt a LOT about stress/strain etc. and forces on objects in things like physics and maths. This is my bread and butter in my job (I do a lot of stress calculations on vacuum vessels, lifting equipment etc.). All this is underpinned by a good understanding of how maths works. Things like integration and differentiation get used a lot… But yeah – I do remember sitting in maths at school thinking ‘when am I ever going to use the quadratic equation!?’. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever used the quadratic equation in my job!

Comments