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What's a Engineering version of Physics?

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If I knew anyone with the smarts to do it who wanted to go into anything space tech related I'd give them all of the encouragement I could.

Hell- even if they didn't have it for the tech part of it I'd tell them to go for the management or business side of it.
 
Fritzo said:
I'm good now (great in fact), but it was a rough road getting here. The secret to happiness is to make a living doing something you love. I eventually found that spot 5 years ago, and really anyone can get there with dedication. Don't live to work, work to live. Passion should drive your life. (OK, I'm done with the inspirational poster comments 😀 )
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buying guitars is not a living...
 
Fritzo said:
I was going to major in astrophysics, but my high-school teacher talked me out of it..."There's no money in that. You can't raise a family doing that, it's more of a hobby degree."

Worst advice I've gotten in my life. That one lady cost me years of being lost, depression, expense from jumping majors...I try not to think about it.
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Well, I am not so sure that advice is all that bad. As you later posted, you want to "work to live" which I take to mean that your job should enable you to achieve other more meaningful things (maybe financial security, raising a family, travel?). It seems to me that more college students should be factoring future earning power into their degree decisions, especially when taking out student loans. You probably aren't going to find work as a poet despite having a PHD.

I think it is also true that the very best in any field will do well financially (have the big house in Oregon), even as most everyone else in that field struggle. I remember having to explain to my reasonably talented high school son that he shouldn't count on becoming the next Michael Jordon. There's a Dirty Harry quote that you can insert here.😉

FWIW, I think working for JPL on building the payloads for future missions would be my dream job.
 
sdifox said:
you don't need to understand the physics behind digging a ditch to dig a ditch. You do need to know how to use a shovel without wrecking your feet though.
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What you need to build a bridge is math.

Edit- I'm kind of funning around, not trying to pick a fight. The answer is there is no engineering equivalent to physics or math for that matter. One may use the principles of physics that are described by applicable maths which can loosely be thought of as tools but engineering is an application of things that run deeper in so-called reality.
 
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FWIW, I think that engineering is the practical application of science and math to make people's lives better (although what is actually "better" is often up for debate).
 
Muse said:
My best friend when I was an undergrad had a scholarship to Harvard and basically was into math and astronomy, as focuses academically. He eventually worked on satellite systems, I'm told (I haven't talked to him, just to a mutual friend) and now lives in a huge house (9000 square foot) in Oregon on a large parcel of land, he evidently made a LOT of money!
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Fritzo said:
You're not helping 😛
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OK, well, I'll relay one from my guru many years ago, maybe that will help. She said:

Don't be afraid to make a mistake. Anything you do might be a mistake.
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