This is a tough one! Unfortunately I think it is both as the engineering I do is all about the practical application of both things which complement each other – for example maths to calculate how forces pass through a structure or machine, and science to understand the materials used to make the structure/machine and work out whether those forces would cause it to break
A bit of both for me, and also art/product design comes into it a lot too! If I had to choose, I would say I do a bit more science in my job than maths (but maths is also in science)!
I would say science – the maths I use is normally relatively simple, things like Pythagoras and trigonometry. What is more complicated is understanding the physics – what forces are acting on things, how they will move and stuff like that.
When it comes to printed electronics it’s quite an even split of both. With the printed solar cells and modules I’m working on, there is alot of science involved with the physics of how it works and the chemistry of the materials that it is made up of. When it comes to designing the shapes and sizes of the cells that make up the module to increase the performance there is alot of maths involved.
I use both. I find maths are everywhere. I have been using different maths for different things I have been working on so I keep having to remind myself of some of the things I learned during my studies. Science is very importat for my job since physics is key to understand how wave energy or wind turbines work, and how to generate electricity with them to create new better designs.
Comments