• Question: since this is apart of our maths lesson how does maths come into your work ?

    Asked by twihard2000 to Cathy, Jaz, Mark, Roma, Rory on 13 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by haron338.
    • Photo: Jaz Rabadia

      Jaz Rabadia answered on 13 Jun 2014:

      Hello !

      That’s a brilliant question! When I was at school, I always wondered if I would end up using all the maths I learnt!

      I use maths all the time, especially when analysing and reporting energy usage. Every morning I get a big spreadsheet of how each of the 170 Debenhams stores has used energy. The meters record how much energy is being used at every half hour, so I end up lots of data that I have to use my statistics skills on.

      Thanks for your question Jaz

    • Photo: Cathy Fraser

      Cathy Fraser answered on 14 Jun 2014:

      The quick answer is in everything, absolutely everything!

      The slightly longer answer is that I use maths and equations when working out power calculations about how much power is flowing around the electricity networks, I use it when I’m writing reports on power station tests to calculate their technical figures, I even use maths when I report to my managers on what the next things are to do!

      This all sounds like you’ve got to be super-good at maths to be an engineer. I’ll let you in on a secret; I’m not naturally ‘good’ at maths. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it – there’s usually a ‘right’ answer to a problem which is very useful, but I had to work pretty hard at school with maths.
      Once I started working in the electricity industry there was more maths that I didn’t know and needed to learn. I love the fact that there’s always something new to learn with engineering, I also love that the more you practice something (like maths) the easier and more natural it becomes!

      Hope that helps!

      Cathy

    • Photo: Roma Agrawal

      Roma Agrawal answered on 15 Jun 2014:

      I use lots of maths in my job
      – Calculate the weight of things in the building
      – Calculate the weight of the building itself so we can design foundations
      – Work out how much wind force can act on the building so it doesnt move too much
      – Then design all the beams, columns, floors and more to be strong enough to take this weight!
      – Lots of geometry as well- look at the Shard’s very interesting shape- we worked out how to fit all the structure in that complicated geometry

      Roma

    • Photo: Mark Greaves

      Mark Greaves answered on 15 Jun 2014:

      Hello!

      As you’ve probably guessed from the other answers, maths is very much a part of engineering.

      My job is no different, maths is crucial. Most commonly I calculate losses in pump systems (head).

      For me the most important equation is for calculating the area of a circle. Simple but so very important!

      Mark

    • Photo: Rory Hadden

      Rory Hadden answered on 15 Jun 2014:

      Hi,

      I agree with what the others have said. Maths is used all the time in engineering. But like Mark said, it is often the things we learned in school that are the most useful. Engineers like to do lots of quick, simple calculations to find out the rough answer before we do the harder sums. This means that we often end up using the maths we learned in school much more than the hard maths we learned at University!

      Rory

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