/sci/ - Science & Math

Anyone else have any good engineering approximation stories?
>taking controls midterm
>calculator dies 5 minutes in
>thisisfine.jpg
>last question
>need to know whether e^{pi/4} is larger than some decimal given (question asked for the dominant pole)
>approximate e^{pi/4} = 3^{3/4} = 3^1/2 * 3^1/4
>3^1/2 = 1.7 = 1.3^2
>get full marks
I checked later, this approximation was accurate within 0.02, or about 1% of the actual value.