@Tathar okay, binormal is not a term we're familiar with; whatever it is, it isn't something that's come up in our work. we probably learned about it a few years ago and forgot

so, tangent and normal to what, anyway?

@Felthry

I'll have to look up my notes after class.

@Felthry

How about arc length and curvature?

@Tathar I'd have to think a bit to remember that but arc length is just integrating the differential length, you just integrate √(dy² + dx²) yeah?

@Felthry

Ah, here we go: http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcIII/TangentNormalVectors.aspx

@Tathar it's been a long time since we've thought about vectors with the ijk formalism instead of as n×1 matrices, wow

@Felthry
Does this mean it gets easier?

@Tathar possibly; the stuff we work in just has a different way of looking at things for the most part

a lot of engineering is trying to figure out where you can avoid the difficult math without sacrificing your approximation too much, really (largely because you want to do stuff that can be easily done by a computer very quickly, since a lot of engineering involves a lot of equation solving repeatedly)

@Tathar differential equations and elaborations thereof are most of what we do

@Felthry
I haven't even touched those yet.

@Tathar There's not as much complicated stuff to memorize, trust me

at least in engineering, the main thing to learn about differential equations is the concepts; the actual solving of them is generally done by simulink

@Felthry

What should I expect from the Foundation Exam then?

@Tathar What's the foundation exam?

@Felthry

I think I mean the FE, and someone just told me that's what it meant a while back. I don't remember the details of how it came up, really.

@Tathar I'm not familiar with anything called "the FE"

@Felthry

First exam towards becoming a licensed engineer. Might be a US thing?

@Tathar oh, we're in the US too but we're doing academic work, which doesn't require a PE certification (also engineering licensing is on a per-state basis so your state might be different from ours anyway)

@Tathar @Felthry the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam? I took that one a while ago, before I went to grad school and then dropped out of grad school due to mental health issues

I don't remember it very well but I can try to answer questions if you want

@packbat

@Felthry

Yeah. I have zero perspective on it and don't know what to expect.

@packbat @Felthry

I also have quite a way to go before I need to take it, but still.

@Tathar Last I checked, there were some practice materials out there - I think my school provided some - but quick bullet points that I remember:

- Bring a calculator off the approved list; scientific calculator, basically no memory storage. They don't want people copying the exam into an electronic device and carrying it out (or in) with them. (On which note: you'll have to leave your phone in the car or a locker or something.)

- (I don't know anything about accessibility accommodations.)

- Bring a lunch to keep in your car. It's an all-day affair. Hundreds of people sitting quietly doing work in a fairground building or whatever.

- There's a selection of different exams; I think one general section and one topical section? I took the mech.e. topical section because I happened to have taken a lot of mechanical courses.

- I think they /provide/ you a reference book; it has a lot of the equations and tables and constants that you might put on your cheat sheet if you were allowed one, which you aren't. (That'd be why they provide the book, too - so you can't bring your own with Clues™ written inside.) I bought a copy of the book before taking the exam so I could familiarize myself with it. It was clear, well-organized, and easy to understand and use for me.

...I feel like it's basically a really, really long final exam, like one might have in a course? But it's been a while and all I remember about the content is that I didn't know the refrigeration stuff.

And it's pass/fail. You don't need to ace it or anything, you just need to score enough to pass.

@Felthry
Looked into it further. The Foundation exam is something my university requires for CS majors, and I mistook it for the other FE because engineering degrees come through the same college.