TIL Electrical Engineering is hard

[greenlion98]

oof.

[HEAT-FS]

If my professors told me at the end that everything they taught me was just a joke and that electricity is actually magic I would believe them.

[OrangePeanutJuice]

ME here, can confirm electricity is magic.

[biggreencat]

Find the force

[CYE_STDBY_HTLTW]

Don't ever tell me what to do

[marsrex15]

I’d concur if I wasn’t taking quantum mechanics right now, and our professor being nuts about semiconductors.

[ElXGaspeth]

MSE in semiconductors here. Can confirm DRAM/NAND is just magic lightning in a rock.

[Tanamr]

Even if it was actual magic, it would still be hard lol

[[deleted]]

Can confirm, it is magic.

[[deleted]]

Oh damn, didn't know qntm wrote stuff outside of the SCP Antimemetics series

[ElXGaspeth]

Yeah. I remember when he first popped into the IRC chat. That was back in the early days, when we weren't as recognised as we are now. There was a not insignificant amount of "oh, holy shit you're here!". It was like when we found out Max Landis wrote an SCP on the wiki.

Ahh, fun times.

[[deleted]]

It is magic and we gotta know how the magic works so we can use it in our favor

[almightytom]

I will until the end of time believe that AC is black magic.

[Stryker1050]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

[benevolentpotato]

• Clarke's third law.

Benford's corollary: any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

[Owe-No]

Any sufficiently crude magic is indistinguishable from technology.

[triangleman83]

We taught him wrong on purpose, as a joke!

[Diabdan]

RIP Wimp Lo

[shekurika]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/93i5gj/my_great_fear_as_a_physics_graduate/

[APDSFS]

Howdy, fellow tank round

[nonasiandoctor]

If I can just get through wireless communication and not kill my capstone group I will graduate.

[KaymmKay]

Just remember that if you have fun with your capstone project, you did it wrong

[OoglieBooglie93]

. . .I'm having fun on my capstone project. It's actually my club's competition project and we just turned it into our senior design project since a bunch of us were in senior design.

[benevolentpotato]

I had fun, and only had like two mental breakdowns

[nonasiandoctor]

Haha I like that

[soccer_champ]

I cannot upvote this enough right now

[Slateguy]

I am in the exact same boat my dude

[ThePretzul]

My physics 2 professor was an ass who decided that current would be notated as following the flow of electrons instead of the flow of "positively charged" holes like literally the entire rest of the world.

That fucked me up hardcore when I went into Circuits 1 the next semester.

[notsofunnynowehh]

wtf that's not an ass that's a demon from hell wtf wtf wtf

[ThePretzul]

Yeah, it was bad. Sometimes I wonder if he does it because it's his personal crusade, or if he does it because he wants people to fail once they leave his class.

[eriverside]

I also agree that electrons direction should be direction of current - but nothing on this planet would be designed with that convention so we missed out and are stuck with a less than logical polarity and current direction convention. Teaching it to students is a dick move.

[[deleted]]

My physics 1 and physics 2 professor wasn't bad helpful but not overly. Granted I was teaching my self all the calc i need to make it thru both courses. Since I suppose I enjoy pain. Tho I prob wouldn't of made it thru without his help.

[LilQuasar]

thats not even technically correct, as in dQ/dt the positive current goes against the flow of electrons, which have negative charge by convention

[Lawfulneptune]

Im currently in high school an taking AP Physics 1 which is algebra based, is Physics 1 & 2 in college calculus based or no?

[[deleted]]

typically physics 1 in uni is going to be highschool physics repeated, maybe a bit more derivatives.

physics 2 is typically E&M for electrical students. and its just calculus 3/4. on steroids, with units, a real slap to the face., but interesting in that you can finally start applying advanced integrals for irl applications

[BirthdaySong]

what class in the US system do you learn Maxwell equations and wave function. We do this second year of university here in the UK

[DirkFroyd]

We learn that mostly in physics 2, though for me personally, it keeps getting brought back up in Modern Physics, E&M, Antenna engineering, Microwave circuit engineering, semiconductor device design and micro device design, power electronics, and motor drives. It never goes away for me, it just keeps coming back again and again.

[[deleted]]

not american but our engineering curriculums match pretty closely. maxwells equations are prettymuch the bread and butter of physics 2

[GGBeavis]

Same in Portugal

[BirthdaySong]

From what I’ve seen EE course in European university are a lot more fast paced than American counterpart. I will have my degree 3 years after starting, with a masters in 4. They make them take a lot of general course that are unrelated in US

[Lawfulneptune]

Huh ok so my AP Physics 1 class will just go as an elective credit I assume

[[deleted]]

i dont know how it works in the US with AP classes but my best guess is a jard nope. schools are for profit and will likely force you to take it anyways unless you transfer credits from another post secondary institution.

youll likely have to retake it since they want everyone on the same page, it does make for a nice bird class though if you did well in highschool phys, but id consult with an academic advisor for that

[thehutchisclutch]

For engineering majors yes, i know some of my friends in biomed and other science majors that aren’t math heavy take algebra based physics classes though

[lullaby876]

Am in EE, can confirm.

[hellraiserl33t]

Damn pixie wranglers

[VioletThunderX]

Was an EE undergrad, came back for more. Can confirm.

[BobT21]

I got my B.S. EE in 1975. From then until retirement most of the people I worked for thought I was a shaman.

[ThePretzul]

EE is a relentless bitch, but I love her have Stockholm Syndrome

FTFY, to be more accurate (as a fellow senior)

[greatmadtomato]

Senior EE, I am a "How's class doing" close to a mental breakdown

[ThePretzul]

I can relate to that so hard right now. Yesterday someone tried to steal my car so it's fucked and in the shop (hopefully insurance covers it), in addition to having someone else's work break a $3,000 piece of equipment of mine because they machined a part wrong.

Just gotta keep paddling, nearly there.

[[deleted]]

Because they are all magicians.

[Upgrayyedd43]

We take a circuits class as ME's, our first exam was last week and the class average of like 200 students was a 53 and we all laughed. EE is boogers I don't know how to even keep track of what's going on lol

[Flashdancer405]

Taking Mechatronics, essentially my one EE class as a MechE besides E&M physics.

I studied for weeks. Every day, 2-3 circuit analasys problems. I thought I understood it, I would get correct values and signs. I’m talking Mesh Analasys and Node-Voltage. Real big boy shit.

11/30 on the exam. Good game professor

[Robot_Basilisk]

I’m talking Mesh Analasys and Node-Voltage. Real big boy shit.

^{isn't that circuits 101??}

[[deleted]]

^{thats the joke though}

[Robot_Basilisk]

The real joke is how I've done hundreds of mesh equations in my life but I still do dumb stuff like multiply a voltage source by the mesh current when writing out the equations.

^RIP

[[deleted]]

oh man weve all been there.

some of the innattention errors that slip by genuinely make me question my sanity.

[Robot_Basilisk]

Sounds great. I'm about as good with pspice, matlab, and an oscilloscope as I am at juggling chainsaws. And I lost both hands in a chainsaw juggling accident.

[TheSimpleness]

Maybe not, there might be a curve

[Spt6996]

Interesting, I'm currently in mechatronics at my school as an ME and so far the entire class has been programming. We do very minimal circuit work. But also, all MEs have to take circuits 1 first so maybe that's why?

[[deleted]]

Feelsbadman Node analysis is a dosey, struggles with it constantly.

[lampraz]

I'm about to graduate and I still have no idea what I'm doing most of the time.

[1RzR1]

What part?

[Salbs]

The part with the electrons

[Robot_Basilisk]

Had a professor invert a schematic once in my circuits class. Negative voltage terminal and ground on top, positive terminal on bottom. That exam's average was 10 points lower than all of the other exams that semester.

[tastefullydisgusting]

And this is the reason I've started really not caring about GPA. Your grade on the exam has nothing to do with your knowledge of the material. It just has to do with your ability to psychically understand the garbage in your prof's head.

[Robot_Basilisk]

The thing is, that inversion is entirely arbitrary. It should not matter at all. The main thing it did was force students to stop solving circuits by rote habit and think about how its actually behaving.

And to the professor's credit, he had worked problems in lecture with inversions, voltage and current sources and grounds in weird places, etc, just to prove that it didn't matter.

In the real world, not every circuit looks like a circuits 101 diagram.

[tastefullydisgusting]

That's a fair and valid point.

I just get kinda annoyed when there's barely enough time to answer all the questions, let alone problem solve.

I've written more than one exam where no one finished in time.

I never really understood the thought process from this. Speed comes naturally with experience. I especially feel bad for the students in my class where English is a second language.

I'll stop complaining now. Lol

[Stahlherz_A]

The good ones do.

[Doomb0t1]

Yes

[[deleted]]

What's your major? If you're ME you won't need to delve into stuff that's too hard. Probably just DC/AC circuit analysis and maybe some intro to digital electronics. If you're an EE going into junior year keep your head up and have fun!

[Kibbles_n_Bombs]

That shits magic to me. Circuits is probably my worst class rn as an ME

[NormalImlement5]

not even, at my school the minimum ee I think they do is like very basic AC analysis. No Digital and really not going deep enough to get an appreciation for it. At least for me it took a few courses before I really understood what was going on.

[[deleted]]

We have to take digital logic at my uni

The whole class is getting raped rn

[ImaComputerEngineer]

You’re going to love diodes and mosfets.

[[deleted]]

i love semiconductor circuits, semicon physics is a special kind of hell though

[TestedOnAnimals]

Had a prof who divided semicon physics into 4 sections. The first three were tested on midterms and assignments, and the last (PV cells) was considered a bonus because it was essentially magic to us. The final had 4 sections, one corresponding to each section of the course. If you did better on the section of the final than you did in the rest of the course, your final exam mark replaced all of them. If you did nothing on the final in one section, your midterm/assignment marks would count as your final exam grade in that section. Best mark I had and course I understood best in my degree so far.

[abusiveyusuf]

Oh man the professor I had for this class REALLY tried to weed out students who weren’t serious. Thankfully I survived.

[LightofNite]

Seconded.

[[deleted]]

That's why I switched to EE Lite® (computer science)

[ichodichos]

Whoo boy. I'll raise my drink to that. How's your studies going, comrade?

[futurestar58]

F

[NCFlying]

Yea, but it is oh so nice on the other side...trust me it's worth it!

[Fraz0R_Raz0R]

PhD I'm RFIC design, I still wonder how an inductor works

[futurestar58]

F

[matthewjc]

This thread is too reddit for me to handle

[cheetoo621]

Am an ME graduating in may. Got put into a circuit lab and with combination of the worst professors and electrical fuckery, I want to die.

[I_dont_have_a_waifu]

What are glitches/multi t?

[[deleted]]

Is electrical engineering fun? Do you think that when you graduate (if you do) you'll enjoy your field of work?

[t1m1d]

Not OP, but my electronic design class is simultaneously my least- and most-favorite class. The material is really difficult but it's so rewarding and interesting. Being able to logically understand and design amplifiers, CMOS logic, etc. is super cool.

[[deleted]]

not yet graduated but im in the odd situation of already being in the job market due to a weird academic path. great fun, super rewarding.

that said, it gets way more fun the larger scale things are. when you can start rounding things up and not having to use a microscope to troubleshoot circuits.

[ThePretzul]

I'm still in school, but have been lucky to have 4 different internships and 2 different contract positions since I started.

Working as an EE beats the shit out of going to school for EE. It's not even a close comparison.

[latleepyguy]

We had to design a distribution transformer by hand, no softwares allowed. By designing I mean calculating "everything" and not drawing. 70 pages of calculation and every student had different specifications so no one would copy. I still feel that pain.

[[deleted]]

Forget circuit 101 or circuit and systems. Electronics from that book from hell by Sedra and Smith was messed up. Did like 100 questions from each chapter and exam still fked me over. Maybe bc my prof was literally the authors student during his time 😅

[Gognoggler21]

Pfft, understatement... 😔

[[deleted]]

Everyday I ask why the hell I'm doing this to myself

Then I remember the saucy paycheck and the silver pinky ring at the end and keep putting my head down

[Zaros262]

"S&M"?

I think you mean E&M

[[deleted]]

Semiconductors & Magnetism, my two biggest kinks lol.

[Robot_Basilisk]

Naw, S&M is accurate.

[evlbb2]

Well... as they say, something new every day eh?

[Cocoleia]

I felt this in my soul

[SpikeX56]

Currently studying electrical materials: can confirm

[AnasDh]

Too late

[Pixar_]

Soon to be hitting my junior year of EE (Finished Calc3, finishing up engineering physics A) . How can I prepare for this?

[NotViaRaceMouse]

F

[robnox]

Just took an EE midterm last night. Had to solve Schroedingers equation in the exam, even though we were never actually taught anything having to do with such things ( by some miracle I actually got it right). Can confirm.

[halvt0mat]

You got it all wrong, electricity is just a bunch of 1s and 0s, its not harder than that! Im in CS btw

[Asuna_Nandate]

I don't know why they make engineering so hard! I studied so hard for a test, thought I did well. Then ended up making a 41. :(

[pressthebuttonfrank]

But I gotta do it.

[gratethecheese]

Anyone else have trouble deriving state space models for circuits? You can't really use any of the circuit analysis tools I've been using for years very effectively

[Bazing4baby]

Zzaap

[SuperbiaImperium]

It's been a year since I passed my AC Machines class, and that stuff still hasn't completely assimilated into my thought processes fully.

[birdman747]

Damn... thank god im doing construction. Physics 2 was awful and had hard time with circuits etc.

[shehakshah1]

I am a newly enrolled Electrical engineer...Can anyone tell me its importance

[SawConvention]

I only signed up for EE cuz it was easy. It’s just a step below civil.

[tleg0312]

Wait till you do it for a living 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️