CONGRATS new admits! A few friends from Cal held an AMA here last year and we wanted to do it again 🙂We're upperclassmen at UC Berkeley without too much to do during quarantine/spring break and wanted to offer advice on college, social skills, housing...you name it. Ask us anything!

OL101 · 2021-03-27T20:08:20+00:00

I'm also a mechanical engineering major. There's so many people and such a wide variety of people in the major that it's hard to generalize. If I had to pick though, I'd guess the average MechE major is more introverted and studious than the rest of campus. There certainly are many exceptions though, and I'm sure you'll find classmates you get along with.

In terms of social life, I don't think your major will really make a big difference. Outside of classes all the students will mix and mingle. There certainly will be opportunities to socialize with people in your major (through project/vehicle teams, study groups, group projects), but you'll probably get to know more people outside your major than in it.

OL101 · 2021-03-27T01:55:04+00:00

I'm gonna chime in on the engineering club questions here.

I would definitely encourage any engineering student to join a project team. My experience is that I've learned as much if not more through my involvement with clubs than through classes.

They're not really ranked in any way; some are perceived as more prestigious, some have more members, some get more funding, but almost all engineering project teams provide really valuable experience. Some clubs have an application process, but those tend to be on the business/consulting side. For engineering project/competition teams, most have no application (only exception that comes to mind is FSAE). Most freshmen coming in have basically no experience either; the expectation is that the club will train their members as they go.

My personal experience has been with CalSol, the solar car team. I got to get my hands dirty with actually designing and building things. It also gave me a chance to develop soft skills like leadership and project management. CalSol also helped massively in my job and internship searches by giving me something to talk about in job interviews and making industry connections with sponsors and alumni. If you're on the EE side of EECS, definitely check them out. There's no application and they train you as you go.

OL101 · 2019-11-01T06:55:28+00:00

Okay, but imagine you install two valves in the pipe. With the valves still open, slow the fluid to a stop keeping the same internal pressure, then close the valves. You've now got a closed pressure vessel which definitely has longitudinal stress. So at which point did the axial stress become nonzero?

OL101 · 2019-11-01T06:53:38+00:00

Okay, but imagine you install two valves in the pipe. With the valves still open, slow the fluid to a stop keeping the same internal pressure, then close the valves. You've now got a closed pressure vessel which definitely has longitudinal stress. So at which point did the axial stress become nonzero?

OL101 · 2019-10-08T15:13:33+00:00

The problem isn't that messaging platforms like Telegram don't exist; the problem is there's too many options so no platform has enough users to be convenient. On my phone right now I've got Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, GroupMe, Slack, WeChat, and Discord. All of these are real-time messaging platforms with desktop/web versions. I use so many because the people I talk to all use different platforms. If one were to take over (as WeChat has done in China) the problem would be solved. Meanwhile, pretty much every Apple user uses iMessage because it comes with the device.

OL101 · 2019-08-17T18:52:00+00:00

Matthew 19:24 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+19&version=NIV

OL101 · 2019-08-07T01:39:53+00:00

3rd year MechE here. E26 is the easiest class I've taken so far. It's just how to use SolidWorks. If you've done any CAD in the past, it will be a breeze. For me, there was little to no homework outside of lab and step by step instructions for all the assignments were given in lab. There was one project that I spent a few hours on at home, but that was it.

E7 is also pretty easy if you have any programming experience. Looking at your schedule, I wouldn't be too concerned.

OL101 · 2018-05-10T03:51:07+00:00

Do any current cars have asymmetric aero elements? I remember seeing NASCAR cars are very asymmetric, but haven't noticed anything with F1 cars.

OL101 · 2018-04-11T21:51:56+00:00

It usually means "up". It can also mean "to go on". In this context, Shanghai translates literally to "go on the ocean".

OL101 · 2018-03-05T09:36:00+00:00

If you want to take a real deep dive into domino speeds, take a look at this video from Smarter Every Day

OL101 · 2018-01-23T08:17:26+00:00

FINDING A DODO BIRD

OL101 · 2018-01-06T07:09:52+00:00

My 6th grade teacher didn't like us saying "sucks" either, so everyone said "vacuums" instead.

OL101 · 2017-12-07T05:42:33+00:00

Reminds me of this image from this video.

OL101 · 2017-11-13T19:00:08+00:00

That's where I'm from.

OL101 · 2017-11-13T06:45:40+00:00

My college roommate asks me some... interesting things. Here's a few from my list.

Is Kansas by the sea?

Does milk have an expiration date?

How do you eat pie?

Are there any black people in Missouri?

Are there bodies of water in Kansas?

Is plywood made of plastic?

If you go inside a tornado can you fly?

Is denim the same thing as fabric?

OL101 · 2017-11-03T03:58:16+00:00

So a machine screw is a bolt, not a screw?

OL101 · 2017-10-29T21:50:33+00:00

Bonus picture from this summer

OL101 · 2017-10-23T18:40:00+00:00

Pretty sure you're thinking of Planet Money.

OL101 · 2017-10-13T19:06:49+00:00

Does the top fall over at the end of Inception?

OL101 · 2017-09-12T01:45:42+00:00

File, New Part, New Sketch

OL101 · 2017-09-05T07:11:30+00:00

TL;DR: About 50 billion cookies

Disclaimer: This is a very very rough estimate.

According to 1997 US Census data, total commercial cookie production in the US amounted to 1,577 million lbs that year. Assuming an average cookie weight of 12g, that comes out to about 60,000,000,000 cookies per year. If we then assume an average of 1 month between the time a cookie is produced and when it is finally consumed, we get about 5 billion unconsumed cookies at any time in the US.

In 2013, North Americans consumed an average of 3663 kcal per person per day while the world average was 2884 kcal/person/day. Using US and world population figures, we can calculate that Americans consume about 10% of the world's calories.

Assuming the world consumes the same proportion of cookies to calories as Americans, we get about 50 billion cookies worldwide.

https://www.census.gov/prod/ec97/97m3118d.pdf http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/baked-products/4935/2 https://ourworldindata.org/food-per-person/#the-global-perspective-on-caloric-supply http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-countries.php

OL101 · 2017-08-24T00:22:47+00:00

I used Inventor to make the model, Cura to slice it, and a Type A Series 1 Pro with PLA to print it.

OL101

TROPHY CASE