Jerry;

While attending engineering college I worked as a senior electronics technician. My interest in electronics and physics began when I was a child. As a technician we were taught to think in terms of “linear equations”. E=IR, etc. To me that was a form of shorthand to solve “practical problems” without getting into too many details.

Engineering college taught me that a simple equation like E=IR for an engineer will take three pages of calculations using Integral Calculus. We looked at such equations as complex three-dimensional objects with concern for the instantaneous parameters such as voltage or current that might appear versus time. A technician could calculate if too much current was passing through a transistor but an engineer is concerned with the instantaneous parameters that might be present which can destroy such devices in a fraction of a second. Typical recording instruments used by technicians do not record instantaneous parameters.

How you view something is dependent upon your area of concern, expertise and training. Never tell a Brain Surgeon you have a headache. Instead of receiving advice such as “take two aspirin”, the surgeon may elect to operate at that very moment!

An understanding of physics is vital to engineering regardless of the discipline and is a subject I truly enjoyed.

Tom