interesting thing about engineering education

Why on this planet Earth, would any EE need to understand relativity?

Quantum Mechanics may have some practical relevance, say in semiconductor physics, but understanding that Einstein was incorrect when he claimed that the Christoffel symbols were the source of the gravitational field, isn't going to increase their pay one iota.

-- Kevin Aylward

I have to say, software engineers are always, way, way, overpaid...

-- Kevin Aylward

I don't think we've ever advertised for garbage-level engineers, but I'll check.

When we want an intern, we ask for one. An internship is a great no-fault way to get to know a kid, an extended interview. Out latest EE hire, the girl from Mexico, started as an intern.

I'm sure they have chemistry. But I think the welding is cool.

Actually, I haven't found high-school or college chemistry to be especially useful or interesting.

It affects some niche-y things, like CRT design. And particle accelerators. And GPS.

1. Corrosion on metallic interfaces such as steel and aluminum?

This costs you plenty on front load washers that use aluminum spiders joined to stainless steel drums. Also cost the US Navy on new warships that corrode before the ship trials are finished. Galvanic corrosion has been known for centuries, and people still make mistakes due to ignorance of chemistry.

1. Breaking rusted bolts with hydraulic fluid and acetone?

Asking a shop to work on your car can cost hundreds of dollars if they agree to take the job. You can convert the rust to ferric carbide, which is brittle and breaks easily. Then you can loosen the bolts. Try to convince a mechanic it will work, since he will not understand chemistry.

1. Destroying viral and bacterial infections with silver ions?

Extremely simple electrolysis equations plus Faraday's equations show how to make a simply solution that is extremely effective against viruses, bacterial and fungal infections. You can die without this knowledge.

1. Destroying fake claims on products that violate chemistry?

All throughout the internet.

Your education is not yet complete. If you cannot balance a simple chemistry equation, you need to learn more. Keep trying. The more you learn, the easier it is to learn more. Each increment of knowledge builds upon the last. I don't know of any other field where growth is so easy.

He may have been paid enough to even convince himself that he was indispensable.

But IMO if he had been an otherwise well-liked, indispensable employee with the talent of a genius the big G would've found a way to keep him on, regardless of their social justice PR.

Nobody mentioned that.

Not that either.

Nope.

No.

Why? I design electronics. If I need to know, say, the specific heat of an alloy, it's on the web. Thermodynamics was modestly useful, but too much attention to steam and not enough to electronics-related things, like cooling-related stuff.

Physics was very useful.

I had an appointment at the VA today. They are using stand alone kiosks to sign in for your appointments. I just shook my head when I saw the area of the touch screen for low vision users. The font there was smaller than the main menu. If they can't can't read the main menu, how do they find the low vision settings?

I don't know whether I would do this, but I know that access to the right p eople & ideas can really change youngster's approach to life. There's also the practical aspect, if parents with no clue about electronics spot some i nterest in it in their 6 year old, access to the right people or place can offer the kid a big leg-up, likely resulting in more of them making somethi ng of it. I'm more mulling it over than recommending it.

y fall short. Let's face it if you're a very good engineer it's likely your interaction with the world is not really normal outside of engineering.

but loads of regular employees were just as weird or weirder.

There I have to differ. Normal people want to socialise, get drunk, etc. Th e thought of spending thousands of hours voluntarily doing electronics of a ny sort horrifies them. We OTOH chose the other way round, and that's reall y not very normal.

NT

I think most people do want it, but for whatever reason fail to act in ways that can get them there, and seem to be convinced it's not possible. Hence the huge popularity of the pretence of success.

NT

how effective is colloidal copper compared with colloidal silver?

FWIW the Tyndal effect shows there is a colloid in cs rather than just ions. I presume as the ions flow, lots of little pieces are broken off the electrodes too.

There are various other simple antibacterials/antifungals/antivirals too that are widely underused

and physics

NT

My doctor recently asked me why I keep working. I opined that I would go nuts if I didn't keep my mind occupied... and I don't golf or fish or ski... designing chips is my hobby... I'm having fun.

My father retired at 65, sold all his businesses, and regretted it within weeks.

He had always had an interest in hill-country music, and had made many beautiful hammered dulcimers (*) from various fine woods, cherry, walnut, etc.

So he joined a hillbilly band and performed all the way to age 90... just days before he died.

(*) He made 64 of them in all. ...Jim Thompson

It helps to like what you do as "work". The unlucky are forever locked into drudgery. ...Jim Thompson

people & ideas can really change youngster's approach to life. There's als o the practical aspect, if parents with no clue about electronics spot some interest in it in their 6 year old, access to the right people or place ca n offer the kid a big leg-up, likely resulting in more of them making somet hing of it. I'm more mulling it over than recommending it.

any fall short. Let's face it if you're a very good engineer it's likely yo ur interaction with the world is not really normal outside of engineering.

, but loads of regular employees were just as weird or weirder.

The thought of spending thousands of hours voluntarily doing electronics of any sort horrifies them. We OTOH chose the other way round, and that's rea lly not very normal.

It's not voluntary. We get paid for doing electronics. Most of my colleague s were happy to do electronics for money during the day, and spent their ev enings socialising and getting drunk. I did my fair share of socialising an d getting slightly drunk from time to time.

I did have a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night with the convic tion that one of my circuits wasn't quite right. I'd write something down a nd get back to sleep, and check out the idea during working hours.

This wasn't unique. We were working on complex circuits to go into complex machines, and he process of getting your head around a chunk of design was expected to take a few days. If it was taking longer, you were expected to talk to your colleagues about the problem - one guy working for me got stuc k for several weeks and didn't ask anybody, which turned into a black mark on his record. I ended up spending about a week roughing out what he should have come up with (in odd moments I could scrounge from what I was suppose d to be doing) on a very public drawing board, and eventually I'd given him enough to get him going.

There's also the problem that getting famous involves solving a problem that the newspapers find interesting. When I was working at EMI Central Research I ran into Godfrey Hounsfield who'd invented the brain scanner by then, and was famous

and C.A.G.LeMay, who had invented the mathematical trick that made the brain scanner practical

and wasn't.

Druggies find chemistry exceedingly handy.

It certainly isn't in the US. There is little correlation between the cost of the education and the results. If there is, it's negative.

How do you figure? I find it amazing that they're paid more than hardware engineers but supply and demand rules.