submitting on behalf of an engineer friend who has no tumblr
The mathematicians, the physicists: they care about what is
true
. The engineers care what is
useful
. Engineers would accept gold-for-a-day. If it should turn to toadstools or snakes or an equal mass of spiders tomorrow, that was fine, as long as they only needed it to be gold for a day. The physicist, the chemist, they would want to watch it happen, they would want to know WHY it happened, they would want to know what happened to the gold, they would want to know what happened to the spiders. (The spiders, for their part, would usually happen to everyone in the vicinity). The engineer might use the gold for its conductive properties, demonstrate the principle and then wash their hands of it, leaving the spiders to happen to an empty lab bench. Those whose curiosity carries them past the horizon and those whose curiosity stops abruptly can both be useful and entertaining in their own ways. But the true prize comes after the first classes on Laplace and Fourier transforms. You see, there are problems that are too complex, too difficult, or too dang tedious to solve through traditional means. Instead, the student is told, we transfer the problem to another mathematical domain, where it is simpler, easier, and more interesting. An opportunistic soul might wait outside the classroom and watch for the starry eyes of the student who internalizes that message. Because you can always offer another domain that promises to solve all kinds of problems. What’s important is to catch them before they learn that sometimes the transforms don’t quite work as planned. Sometimes you can’t find your way back. (all that about Laplace/Fourier transforms is 100% true)
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