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b_b · 4726 days ago · link · · parent · post: Why should you learn math? Because fuck you, that's why.
I too left engineering because I got so annoyed at the lack of a scientific approach. I hated engineering school in my third and fourth year, but thought maybe it would be better when making a paycheck. Fuck that. I worked from Chrysler in the final year or two it was owned by the Germans, and it was miserable. No one could possibly care any less about doing anything scientifically in that company, and you can see the result in the cars, unfortunately. That's why I quit and went into physics for grad work.
That said, safety factors can be important, mainly because material defects exist so often. Its easier to over-design by a factor of 2-10 than it is to perform quality inspections constantly (not to mention the whole lawsuit protection game).
I was more impressed that my redneck approach of "that looks about right" was the more dominant approach than "whip out some math and get efficient on that bitch." It was pretty fucking amazing, though - one of our final projects was to do the cost build, the analysis and build a working scale model of something capable of lifting a 150lb load 10' into the air and then move it side-to-side by 3'. I was so underwhelmed by the task that I designed mine out of bamboo and used a come-along as motive force. My build came in at $200.
The amazing thing to me wasn't that mine was far and away the cheapest approach, but that mine was the only successful approach. Here's all these 4th-year engineering students, and exactly two of them are capable of building a fucking hoist.