Electrical engineering

[christowilso]

I've never said it would as I already said I know it's harder, I just said some of it is similar to what I have already done. I looked at that post and yes I have done some and others I have not

At the end of the day if you're willing to put in the work you'll get through it. After the first two weeks of the HNC i done two years ago i felt completely out of my depth and was ready to stop. A fair bit of hard work and total commitment got me through it so i can only recommend more of the same.

 

[aces4al]

Cheers mate

 

[GB.Kayak]

Get past HNC level maths and they wont help a great deal. As far as I know there aren't calculators that can deal with complex numbers and transforms well.

There are calculators that can deal with complex numbers ... transforms, would that be Fourier transforms? If so, I am not so sure on that one!

Matlab is far better than excel for that.

I don't think excel will accept complex numbers. Or if it can I don't know how. (never looked into it)

If you know the theory and have the time and the knowledge, MS Excel could be used for calculations with complex numbers ... but you are correct, Matlab or Mathcad would be much better applications. I know for certain that Mathcad works on natural mathematical notation. I used to be frustrated at work as a design 'stressman' that the control law expert was allowed to use Mathcad but we mere stress analysts were only allowed pencil and paper, 'tippex' a photocopier and a copy of ROARK'S Formulas for Stress and Strain on the desk! MS Excel, was the 'work of the devil' because it hides the natural language of the mathematics in an almost impenetrable code dependent on how a spreadsheet is laid out and how the user chooses to implement their solution. Quality control is all but impossible! It was a nightmare every time the designer changed his mind on materials! Out would come the stress calc and tippex, blot out the bits requiring change, photocopy the original and fill in the numbers through the entire calculation all over again!

 

[christowilso]

There are calculators that can deal with complex numbers ... transforms, would that be Fourier transforms? If so, I am not so sure on that one!



If you know the theory and have the time and the knowledge, MS Excel could be used for calculations with complex numbers ... but you are correct, Matlab or Mathcad would be much better applications. I know for certain that Mathcad works on natural mathematical notation. I used to be frustrated at work as a design 'stressman' that the control law expert was allowed to use Mathcad but we mere stress analysts were only allowed pencil and paper, 'tippex' a photocopier and a copy of ROARK'S Formulas for Stress and Strain on the desk! MS Excel, was the 'work of the devil' because it hides the natural language of the mathematics in an almost impenetrable code dependent on how a spreadsheet is laid out and how the user chooses to implement their solution. Quality control is all but impossible! It was a nightmare every time the designer changed his mind on materials! Out would come the stress calc and tippex, blot out the bits requiring change, photocopy the original and fill in the numbers through the entire calculation all over again!

In terms of complex numbers my calculator is my best friend. Any modern scientific calculator can deal with the polar rectangular conversion and vice verse in seconds.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Complex numbers are anything but!
The calculations with them are simple.

 

[Bobster]

GB Kyack: I don't know how excel would deal with Fourier transforms or Laplace/inverse laplace transforms.

 

[ackbarthestar]

Here you go, from Excel Help.......
"
Microsoft Excel provides a set of data analysis tools — called the Analysis ToolPak — that you can use to save steps when you develop complex statistical or engineering analyses. You provide the data and parameters for each analysis; the tool uses the appropriate statistical or engineering macro functions and then displays the results in an output table. Some tools generate charts in addition to output tables.
Related worksheet functions Excel provides many other statistical, financial, and engineering worksheet functions. Some of the statistical functions are built-in and others become available when you install the Analysis ToolPak.
Accessing the data analysis tools The Analysis ToolPak includes the tools described below. To access these tools, click Data Analysis on the Tools menu. If the Data Analysis command is not available, you need to load the Analysis ToolPak add-in program.

and

"The Fourier Analysis tool solves problems in linear systems and analyzes periodic data by using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method to transform data. This tool also supports inverse transformations, in which the inverse of transformed data returns the original data."

Just download the add on analysis kit - you can also do it with Pascal, Fourtan, C++