Efficient Ways to Verify Answers in Physics and Engineering Problems

[ENgez]

i hope this is the correct place to post this..

are there any other technical ways, besides dimensional analysis, to check your answers in physics and engineering problems?

 

[zhermes]

Many problems have different methods of obtaining a solution---you can use one to check another. Very often there are ways of estimating the correct solution to confirm that yours is consistent. Generally it depends on the situation.

Sometimes you can check the back of the book or google as-well. ;)

 

[vela]

i hope this is the correct place to post this..

I moved this thread over to the General Physics forum since it wasn't really a homework-type question.

 

[SHISHKABOB]

well if you ever get a velocity of more than 3x10^8 m/s you know your answer is probably not right :D

 

[vela]

When I have an expression that applies to a general case, I like to check specific cases where I know what the answer should be and confirm if I get the expected result.

Another thing you can do is make sure quantities vary as expected.