What's the toughest ME undergrad course?

  • Thread starter Thread starter fastcamaross
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Course Undergrad
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around identifying the toughest undergraduate courses in Mechanical Engineering (ME) and related engineering fields. Participants share personal experiences and challenges faced in various courses, highlighting the subjective nature of difficulty based on individual strengths and weaknesses.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant found electric and electronic circuits to be the hardest due to a lack of intuitive understanding.
  • Another mentioned that performing Finite Element Analysis (FEA) by hand was particularly challenging, despite recognizing its importance for understanding CAD programs.
  • A junior year elective in mechanical metallurgy was noted as difficult, primarily due to the professor's teaching style and complex theory.
  • Fluid mechanics was highlighted as mathematically challenging, especially due to its reliance on differential equations.
  • Control Systems was described as difficult because of the need to understand transfer functions and the complexities of Laplace transforms.
  • One participant found advanced dynamics, engineering analysis, and aerospace propulsion to be their hardest courses, citing issues with the lecturer and time constraints for learning.
  • Machine elements were mentioned as difficult not due to complexity but because of the extensive memorization required for equations.
  • Numerical Methods using MATLAB was also noted as a challenging course by multiple participants.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a variety of opinions on which courses are the hardest, indicating that there is no consensus on a single toughest course. Different individuals highlight different subjects based on personal experiences and challenges.

Contextual Notes

Participants' perceptions of difficulty are influenced by individual strengths, teaching quality, and course content, which may vary significantly across institutions.

fastcamaross
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Random question for all you MEs out there, but feel free if you also have engineering courses taken in other areas (EE, CE, ChemE, etc), just wondering what is the hardest undergrad level course you have taken. If you choose to post, I'm interested in why is was so difficult for you. I know it really depends on the person but just curious to hear some opinions! Thanks
 
Engineering news on Phys.org
The hardes class for me during my ME degree... electric and electronic circuits! My mind just isn't wired to intuitively do that stuff. I don't find any of the actual ME stuff to be too bad, perhaps because I actually enjoyed it.
 
The most unfun thing I've done in class is to perform FEA aynalisis by hand! Yep, constructing and solving a 20x20 matrix from a seemingly simple truss is no fun at all! But the logic is that we should understand how CAD programs operate FEA simulations...
 
Junior year elective, mechanical metallurgy which was about rolling, punching and extruding. The prof sucked and the theory was over my head, probably still is.
 
Mmmmmm...strain energy and Von Mises max distorion energy prinicple...fun stuff...
 
I think the most difficult course mathematically is easily fluid mechanics. It was the first course outside of the math department that relied pretty heavily on differential equations (including partial).
 
Control Systems- it relied a lot on understaning of how to intuit transfer functions of components (such as electrical circuitry which I found counter-intuitive in most cases), not to mention the "fuzzy math" that is laplace transforms >:-)
 
Mech_Engineer said:
Control Systems- it relied a lot on understaning of how to intuit transfer functions of components (such as electrical circuitry which I found counter-intuitive in most cases), not to mention the "fuzzy math" that is laplace transforms >:-)

That's weird, that was my best course. The hardest courses for me were advanced dynamics, engineering analysis, and aerospace propulsion. The latter mainly because the lecturer was lazy and gave us wrong information. The others because there just wasn't enough time to learn them properly.
 
Great to hear some opinions! Pretty sad when I would say my worst class is physics, but haven't had enough ME courses yet to really get a feel. I've only had 4 engineering classes so far, so guess there is a lot of room to get harder.
 
  • #10
Same for me with the electric circuits!
 
  • #11
Vibrations or Fluid Mechanics
 
  • #12
I feel like I am taking it right now. Numerical Methods using MATLAB.
 
  • #13
at my university it was probably machine elements, not because its hard to understand or anything but because u needed to know all the equations for every mechanical component invented.
 
  • #14
btbam91 said:
I feel like I am taking it right now. Numerical Methods using MATLAB.

Yeah, see my post. We call it Engineering Analysis. We had to do an advanced version too for Aerospace, it was quite tricky.
 

Similar threads

Programs Physics Masters at undergrad school before PhD?
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
3K
Other More formal education later in career
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
Why is engineering the toughest major (for me)?
  • · Replies 19 ·
Replies
19
Views
3K
Courses Multiple physics and maths courses at the same time?
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
Courses Electronics vs Telecom for Physics?
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
3K
Courses Is Pure Mathematics required to be a top-tier Physics student?
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
4K
What courses should I take for a career in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics?
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
Which Advanced Math Courses Benefit Robotics and Propulsion Engineering?
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
Schools Is This a Typical Undergrad Physics Experience?
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
2K
Taking Math Courses with Math Students
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
1K