Tom, Thanks. I just bought Hibbeler's "Engineering Mechanics: Statics" and "Engineering Mechanics: Dynamics" on Amazon. I saved 99% (and spent $1.57 + 2 * 3.99) because I bought old editions.
Kevin Stueve On Sep 22, 2:25 pm, Tom Boothby <tomas.boot...@gmail.com> wrote: > I spent a while thinking that I was going to be a mechanical engineer, > and took a few of the ME intro courses. Engineering statics and > dynamics can be phrased entirely in terms of linear algebra, though > the courses I took didn't present them as such. Materials analysis is > highly computational in nature and could be interesting. When I took > these courses, I'd spend about 1-2 hours a week programming my TI > calculator to do my homework, and about 5 minutes actually doing my > homework (for the record, my professors were aware of, and pleased as > punch with this approach). > > When I took the physics prerequisites for these courses, the problems > we had to do were 1-2 variable toys. The engineering homework > frequently had a number of rigid bodies in motion relative to one > another -- and involved solving systems of linear equations in 6-10 > variables. If I were you, I'd look through Hibbeler's texts for > "typical" problems that it should be easy to input and solve. In > fact, you can borrow my copy some time, if you like. > > > > On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 11:14 AM, kstueve <kevin.stu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > As my work on prime_pi and nth_prime is drawing to a close, William > > Stein and I have discussed the possibility of me making a graphical > > physics program to be included in Sage, the free open source math > > program. > > > An example of the desired functionality is to either with a few lines > > of code from within a Sage worksheet, or by clicking buttons in a > > graphical user interface (GUI) create a physics problem with > > components such as ramps, blocks, balls, pulleys, and springs, and > > processes such as motion (translational or rotational), collisions > > (elastic, inelastic, completely inelastic), and forces (friction, > > gravity, normal forces, driving forces, etc). > > > I am expecting the VIGRE grant from the National Science Foundation > > (NSF) to support my work, so I will be able to devote a lot of time to > > this project. > > > I would like to obtain any and all suggestions for what features, > > functionality etc. could be included in this program. Please don't be > > afraid to contribute an idea. No suggestion is too large or too > > small. > > > A few of the possible ideas that I have come up with so far: > > > Allowing time to be solved for-e.g. exactly how long does it take for > > an event to occur, such as for velocity to reach 0. > > > Using multi-precision arithmetic and error analysis to solve a problem > > to a specified accuracy-e.g. what is the velocity of an object at a > > certain time to the 100th decimal (for problems that don't include too > > much chaos). > > > Creating a human readable physics problem specification language that > > allows the locations and properties of each component to be specified > > (perhaps similar to standard circuit specification languages). > > > Allow matrices, systems of DEs, tables of values, etc that describe > > the physics problem to be accessed with Sage commands. > > > Symbolic solving for problems that lend themselves to symbolic > > solving. > > > Plotting variables such as velocity, kinetic energy etc. with respect > > to time. > > > Plotting more complicated functions such as the amount of time a block > > takes to slide to the bottom of a ramp with respect to the ramp's > > angle. > > > Make architecture easily extensible so new components can be made by > > the user > > > Three dimensional graphics and problems (after 2D is finished) > > > Kevin Stueve > > kstu...@uw.edu --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
