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Engies: Spy be sappin mah' [STATICS]
Xano
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi guys, I'm currently studying engineering right now as an undergrad - and it's come to the point where I'll be taking a class in statics. I've heard many engineering students have had a difficult time throughout this course, so i want to prepare early by gaining some "pre-knowledge" i guess.
So H/A - Anyone know any resourceful websites i can hit up? I have like a month before class starts.
Also, I wouldn't mind spending a few bucks online for some sort of supplemental book or something.
Personal experience and plain advice on the course if you've taken it would help too!
Thanks for reading such a boring post guys!
So H/A - Anyone know any resourceful websites i can hit up? I have like a month before class starts.
Also, I wouldn't mind spending a few bucks online for some sort of supplemental book or something.
Personal experience and plain advice on the course if you've taken it would help too!
Thanks for reading such a boring post guys!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Xano on
0
Posts
I took statics as part of my gen-ed. stuff before I started into Electrical Engineering curriculum, and really it consists of nothing more than systems of equations. If you know how to solve for two or more unknowns using two or more equations, you'll be solid, I think.
There's a few books by Hibbeler out there that might be helpful. Sorry I don't have a link.
anyone know where i can grab some material to get a feel of what i'm up against?
You just take away anything that's exerting a force on your body and make it a force. The ground? That's a force. Touching a wall? Force. Jet engine? Force.
Then there are three equations that you'll solve (usu. as a system in a cartesian plane):
The sum of the forces in the X direction are 0.
The sum of the forces in the Y direction are 0.
The sum of the moments on the object are 0.
It's actually a pretty simple course. And rightfully so. You just have to get in the mindset for it.
EDIT: Solving for systems of a couple variables is greatly improved by being able to do linear algebra. If you can pare your system down to the appropriate amount of unknown forces then knowing how to put it in matrix form and solve it can save you a lot of time. Or not, if you're not comfortable with it, but I know it's helped me. If you ever have to take a structural analysis course it will probably be what you end up doing there.
a: People forgot how to do trig, or never understood in the first place.
b: People couldn't figure out a consistent method for keeping their signs and directions in order for members in tension or compression.
c: Shear-moment diagrams. Seriously this messed so many people up, most of the people I had statics with never got the hang of these until they took mechanics of materials or even structural analysis. And it helps so so much. If you can figure out the difference between internal and external forces, and the sign conventions for shear and moment and the differential relationship between them you will be way ahead of the curve if you take upper division civil courses.
Just pay attention in class, take notes, and do the homework. You should be okay. The math never goes above algebra (and it maybe reaches calc 1 once or twice, you might have to integrate or solve a derivative at some point).
Like other people have said, be good at drawing free body diagrams. Saves you so much confusion.
Have you taken an elementary physics course? My physics class might have been a little extensive or something, but flipping through the Statics book, we already covered a lot of it in Physics I.
What flavor of engineering are you going for, Xano?
Another offender was Calc 3...I heard so many times that it was both way easier than Calc 2, and way harder than Calc 2.
The answer? I thought it was way easier, but I had an incredible professor. And I'm interested in/pretty good at math, so people who hate math shouldn't trust what I say. :P
I was a TA for statics, and people either 'got it' or 'didn't get it'. On the midterm, half the class failed. half the class got about 2/20, the other half got 18/20.
Your best bet is simply to go to class and any study sessions and ask if you don't understand something.
That's kind of funny Taximes, i heard the same thing about calc 3 - and it wasn't really that hard. You just gotta know your divergence/convergence tests really well. Well anyways, i finished calc 4 and linear algebra a bit ago, and thought calc 4 was harder. I'll be entering my 2nd year of schooling come late September.
After statics comes dynamics right? At least it does for me.
And yeah, dynamics usually follows statics. Also a fun class.
Statics is not hard. It is however the most fundamental knowledge you can learn and a solid knowledge of it makes everything else easier also.
It would probably be best not to actually do any self learning as it will stop you from accidently learning any bad sign convention which is probably the most important thing you will learn in the course.
Satans..... hints.....
Biomedical includes biomechanical, with applications such as prosthetics.
I took bioengineering, but didn't finish.
Since I don't know what else to say I guess I'll offer help if you need it down the line in the form of you PMing me and me saying things back assuming I still read the forums. I will try to make the things I say helpful, even though I totally failed structural analysis and while I got an A in statics and a B in dynamics I don't really understand how either of those happened.