Hardest engineering discipline?

What are people thinking? I do electrical/electronic, pretty hard really, not sure if its the hardest though in terms of understanding and complexity of the theory?

Reply 1

Scuttle

dnbhead

What are people thinking? I do electrical/electronic, pretty hard really, not sure if its the hardest though in terms of understanding and complexity of the theory?

There will be some debate here, but generally the 'hardest' in terms of complexity are seen to be Aeronautical and I think Elec Eng.
This is subjective and I'm sure everyone has their own ideas, but I think perhaps Aero has the most complexity to it, purely because it has some of the more challenging maths problems centred around aerodynamics and whatnot.

Reply 2

shiny

12

There is no hardest, just different. what one person finds intuitive, others are left baffled and vice versa.

And what is "hard"? is hard trying to understand the turbulent flow coming off a fan blade by designing numerical simulations? is hard designing an elevator which has to carry several thousand passengers every day, up and down a 30 storey building? or is hard making sure that your customers get to watch Desperate Housewives via their Sky box in bad weather conditions?

Reply 3

Scuttle

shiny

There is no hardest, just different. what one person finds intuitive, others are left baffled and vice versa.

And what is "hard"? is hard trying to understand the turbulent flow coming off a fan blade by designing numerical simulations? is hard designing an elevator which has to carry several thousand passengers every day, up and down a 30 storey building? or is hard making sure that your customers get to watch Desperate Housewives via their Sky box in bad weather conditions?

You are quite correct, I only mentioned Aero beacuse I think it is widely acknowledged as relying most heavily on maths (higher level maths than the others) and often this is seen as making something harder. Again this depends on whether pure maths is your strength or not!
It's all swings and roundabouts!

As for the hardest out of the three scenarios you gave, I would have to say figuring out how to make the Sky Box work in bad weather is the easiest, since judging from the break-up I get when a strom is coming, they never bothered solving that one :smile:

Reply 4

Anannya

8

Scuttle

There will be some debate here, but generally the 'hardest' in terms of complexity are seen to be Aeronautical and I think Elec Eng.
This is subjective and I'm sure everyone has their own ideas, but I think perhaps Aero has the most complexity to it, purely because it has some of the more challenging maths problems centred around aerodynamics and whatnot.

So does that make mechanical engineering even more tough :s-smilie:

??Aeronautical and mechanical engineering are quite inter related....many universities don't even teach them separately and mechanical engineering is a broader subject to study.

:tee:

Reply 5

Scuttle

Anannya

So does that make mechanical engineering even more tough :s-smilie:

??Aeronautical and mechanical engineering are quite inter related....many universities don't even teach them separately and mechanical engineering is a broader subject to study.

:tee:

Aero is mechanical, but with extra modules on top.
Why would mechanical be tougher? People seem to have the misconception that mechanical is harder than say Aero because mechanical covers everything. It doesnt, it covers the general stuff and doesn't go in depth in any specific area.
Aero/Auto are both mechanical engineering but they add stuff on top (extra aerodynamics modules for example) so that you are better equiped to enter your relevant field. Mechanical does not cover EVERYTHING that every mechanically based course covers at all, it just covers a more general area.

In all honesty, a mechanical student can probably select modules from the Aero course (assuming they arent in teh same department and taught by the same people anyway) like turbomachinery and propulsion and go some way to specialising in aircraft or take modules on internal combustion engines ( i know many places do them anyway, but you wont have done them in the depth the auto guys do, but you can do extra optional modules to get yourself on equal standing) and specialise in cars.

It is much of a muchness though, Aero/Auto/Mech people all end up with roughly the same skill set and aiming for the same jobs. The only reason Aero would be harder in terms of maths is that they go into more advanced fluid/continuum mechanics and suchlike than any of the others, and that involves some pretty tough maths.

At the end of the day, all engineering is hard because it's all challenging material AND you do the most hours of work of anyone you'll meet at uni.

Hardest engineering discipline?

Related discussions

Articles for you