Recent content by DuncanM

I'm getting ready to winterize my home and was browsing the insulation aisle at Home Depot. They have a wide variety of insulating products from which to choose: soft foam, rigid foam, batts, etc. I got thinking it might be an interesting at-home experiment to confirm the R-values of some of...

When I was a student, I barely had time to eat, let alone explore beyond what was required of us. Before finals: I think it is best if you focus on just the material for which you are responsible. Anything that distracts you from that task may hurt your mark. After finals: Go ahead and learn...

I think many people consider Aerospace Engineering a specialized discipline of Mechanical Engineering, so most questions relating to aerospace are usually posted in the Mechanical Engineering forum. So far, there simply hasn't been enough activity/demand to justify creating a forum specifically...

I don`t know for sure, but off the top of my head, I think the Scientific Computing option would be the more generic of the two and, therefore offer the most job possibilities. I suppose it depends on location, and industry you want to be in. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of...

Since your problem, as-is, does not require you to save the numbers, I suppose your solution works okay. Glad to know you got it working. However, in most cases, the data is saved for additional work. In this case, a dynamic array would be used. One way of approaching this problem would be to...

Here is some sample data. I wanted to have the points at t = T/4 and t = 3T/4 included, so the motion was divided into 20 uniform intervals. T = 1 time unit. k = 0 t = 0.0 sin(2*PI/20*t) = 0.0 k = 1 t = 0.05 sin(2*PI/20*t) = 0.309016994374947 k = 2 t = 0.1...

(1) For a real function, g(x), the Fourier integral transform is defined by g(x) = \int_{0}^{\infty} A(\omega )cos(2\pi \omega x)d\omega - \int_{0}^{\infty} B(\omega )sin(2\pi \omega x)d\omega where A(\omega ) = 2 \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} g(x)cos(2\pi \omega x)dx and B(\omega ) = 2...

One application that comes to mind quickly is the analysis of aeroelasticity and flutter. By forming the appropriate matrix, and computing its eigenvalues and eigenvectors, you can determine the modes of vibration, and its frequencies. I suppose that would fall under the general rubric of...

Yes, it is possible. In fact, as you may have noticed already, most university work is up to you anyhow. Sometimes you get a bad professor, sometimes you get a good professor, sometimes you get a professor who knows the material but can't teach, etc. Whatever, the situation, the onus is on you...

I think the courses taught at "elite" universities are a lot harder, especially if the school promotes itself as a "research" school. The difference between a college and a university is that a college typically does not offer graduate courses. Since the heads of professors tend to be in their...

If you really want to get into things electronic, perhaps one option would be to complete your Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, and then find a way to do advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering. I recommend caution about switching fields halfway through your schooling, or picking...

It would also be helpful if you could take advantage of any special properties of the array. For example, are the array entries real or complex? Is the array symmetric or Hermitian? Is the array sparse? etc etc. Several routines are written to make the most of these features and provide faster...

I am curious to see the equations you are solving. Can you post them here? On the 48GX, you can enter the value of x where you suspect a zero will be (see the attached image.) The arrows on the calculator can be used to move the cursor into this field, and then you can enter an initial guess...

I have the HP 48GX too; have had it for over twenty years and am very happy with it. In fact, it is possible to compute all roots of a polynomial in a single transaction. You use the SOLVE application. The polynomial coefficients are entered as a vector. You then click "SOLVE", and all the...

There is a Master's Thesis (in PDF format) from Oxford University posted at the following link: http://eprints.maths.ox.ac.uk/16/1/mekwi.pdf I think it does a pretty good job providing a general overview (and easily readable) of the various iterative methods available for solving...