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/sci/ - Science & Math

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10018601 No.10018601 [Reply] [Original]

I want to study electrical or maybe chemical engineering but for the first year I have to do a general class in everything. Right now statics and dynamics is kicking my ass. I just completely bombed a 10% test. This shit is honestly making my reconsider engineering. Should I stick it out to do electrical or chemical or am I just too retarded? To be honest I didn't really study but that's the worst part, I don't really know how to because I've never had to. Basically my question is, does it get easier? Obviously the content becomes more in depth but I assume it's also more focused and directed towards things you might actually be interested in thus making it easier to study for. Aside from that, does anyone have study tips? I just started my week long mid-semester break.

pic related is me apparently.

>> No.10018678

>>10018601
>Right now statics and dynamics is kicking my ass

Learn matrix algebra
Learn vector geometry

>> No.10018709

>>10018601
if you're not doing well in statics, i wouldn't do anything remotely related to chemical. I don't know much about EE, but I'm doing ChemE and statics is by far the easiest engineering class. If you aren't putting in the study hours, try doing that first before quitting. I mean REALLY put in work to try and understand what you're doing. But it only gets harder if you don't understand the fundamentals.

>> No.10018722

What's so hard about statics? Nothing is moving, all the forces acting on any point sum to zero. All the moments sum to zero. Go from there bro.

>> No.10018750

>>10018678
>>10018722
I know the equations and how to use them. It's the fucking questions that get me. They're so fucking confusing and ambiguous. The hardest part is interpreting the fucking questions. I honestly am finding dynamic easier at this point because statics is a cluster fuck of trusses going everywhere. It's easy when it's nice and clearly defined but these fucking machine questions where they give you like an actual physical object and you have to identify all the members of, say, a forklift is fucking me over.

>> No.10018751

>>10018709
Why not? Chemical so far has just been mass balances. What do you do in later years that is even slightly similar to statics and dynamics?

>> No.10018752

>>10018750
Post an example and what specifically is tripping you up.

>> No.10018754

Btw the pass rate for my statics and dynamics course is under 60%. Like around 55%. The last test that I bombed even a friend with a 7.0gpa said they had trouble. I don't think anyone came out of that test confident with what they put down.

>> No.10018755

>>10018751
Senior ChemE here, I never took statics and idek what dynamics is but it sounds like a MechE course. Like fucking spring motion or something.

>> No.10018756

>>10018755
Yeah it is for mechanical and a bit civil. So it's completely unrelated to what I want to do but I still need to do it to move on.

>> No.10018759
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10018759

>>10018752
Something like this. I understand it in theory but when I see something like this on the test I have no idea where to start.

>> No.10018768

>>10018759
Well obviously it depends on what you're trying to do, but the first thing I would do is try and think about how many different components go into making that part. Look at where all the pins are at, each pin will connect two (or more) parts together in order to hold the entire mechanism together. Then you need to think about each part as having its own free body diagram.

So for example, if you removed the pins at G and D you'd just be left with the scooper part thing with point H on it.

What were you asked to do with that particular diagram?

>> No.10018775

>>10018768
This was just an example I pulled of the internet. I don't have access to the actual test question but it was basically a nail clipper with force applied to both handles and you have to find the force exerted on a nail. I just find it confusing as fuck. I can do bridges and shit but stuff like this I just don't get.

>> No.10018782

>>10018775
Alright well just see where you did with respect to the rest of the class, if you're finishing near the bottom and you really tried hard to learn it might be time to switch to something else. I don't know what chem E is like, but I'm mech E and statics is something you absolutely need to know for the rest of the degree.

It might just be you don't have enough practice with these, they aren't just things a lot of people will learn easily.

>> No.10018784

>>10018782
Like I said, barely half the class passes this course. Students from later years all say it's shit. So idk. I definitely do need to study though. I just don't know how.

>> No.10018793

>>10018601
>does it get easier?

No, it gets a lot harder. If you can't handle that then go for CS.

>> No.10018810

>>10018793
How? What do you actually do in later years?

>> No.10019018

>>10018759
You need to get a gut feeling of how it will move. Then you can just see that G is under tension, D is under compression, BC is compressed, A is being pulled down by mg, etc

>> No.10019053

>>10019018
>gut feeling
trash course

>> No.10019911

what is statics and dynamics? is that physics 1? i am an EE with solid gpa and newtonian physics is witchcraft to me. i hate calculating torque and tension so much.