• Question: Do you find that mathematics is a big part of your every day work?

    Asked by laceyc to Martin on 13 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Martin Wallace

      Martin Wallace answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I would say that the really complicated maths I studied at university doesn’t get used very much at all, however some of the simpler stuff I learned at school does. In fact today was a good example where I had to resolve a force into two directions, this was a simple problem involving one right angled triangle, however I realised I had to think really hard about how to do it correctly. While I was at university and school I would have done problems like this every day, however now I am out of practice. It made me happy though that I could eventually remember what I needed to do, so the knowledge is in there, just buried very deep.
      It is easy to get lazy when it comes to maths, because a lot of engineering now involves computers that can work out complex calculations very quickly – but often it helps to understand how the computer has come to a solution, even if you can’t completely follow the complex mathematics that it used.

Comments

  • Photo: Joanne

    Joanne commented on :

    Great answer Martin!

    I don’t use maths on a daily basis any more either. I used to though, in trying to improve manufacturing processes using SPC (Statistical Process Control).

    At least we know we can if we ever have to and like you say, the understanding is there.

  • Photo: Emily

    Emily commented on :

    Same here.
    When I first started my job as a new graduate, my boss asked me to do some calculations “from first principles”. I took that literally, as I would have at school, and got my head muddled in a lot of detail, and differential equations, for those that have (or will) study them… I finally went back to him when I was thoroughly stuck, and it turns out I was trying to do way too much maths! What was needed was much simpler.
    In industry you need to have the understanding of where equations come from in case you ever need it (or know which book to look in…), but you don’t need to know it!