Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Do the Math

One of the things I've enjoyed most about teaching the licensing classes down at Great South Bay ARC is that it stimulated in me an interest to get deeper into mathematics.  This happened when I realized I had forgotten something as basic as solving an equation like Ohm's Law, R = E / I, for one of the other variables like "I" for instance.  Now don't get me wrong, I knew the 3 transcriptions of Ohm's Law, but I couldn't remember how to do it algebraically and this bothered me, so I took out my Schaum's College Algebra study guide and went to it.

Eventually I found some good free online resources like www.mathisfun.com, www.coursera.org and inside of Apple's iTunes you'll find a tab for iTunes U (iTunes University).

One result of all this study is that the more familiar I became with working with the math, the better I was able to understand the electronics.  Not only that, but the math lead me to gain deeper insights into what was going on in the circuits and to understand how changes made to various components would affect the circuit's operation.

The math has also helped me in developing better analogies for describing many of the electrical phenomena that we deal with in amateur radio.  Concepts like wavelength, frequency, resonance, reactance, current flow, differences of potential (i.e. voltage drops) and impedance vs. resistance, suddenly became easier to relate to people not familiar with that much science.

It also became easier to teach the math to people in a way that was more student friendly than the way it is often taught in the books.  I found I could now teach the concept of decibels to new and old hams alike who had been confused by the math (dB power = 10 log (Pmeas/Pref)).   I could explain the why of it, not just tell them to memorize the math questions for the test.  I wanted my students to understand what they were learning!

The problem most people have with math is that they fear it because of the view that math is hard.  Well, that's not a lie, math is hard!  But math is not something that only geniuses can understand.  You don't need any special aptitude for math, you just have to be willing to persist until you get through the wall that's blocking your understanding of a problem or concept.  Once you get past that wall you won't be able to remember what was so hard about it in the first place!  The bad news is that if you keep studying there's going to be another wall, and another, and yet another.  One of the hardest things is to keep persevering through the hard times to get that breakthrough.

The good news is that nowadays with the internet and all of its resources, theres really no excuse for not being able to learn as much as you want.  It may take you months or years of study to get where you want, and like me, you may need to repeat courses you've never taken before like pre-calculus, calculus, trigonometry and geometry, the payoff is well worth it.  You will think better and understand more things more clearly.  There's no downside!  So go do the math!

1 comment:

  1. Math is hard, yes, but few things that are worthwhile are easily achieved. So when I'm done banging my head against the wall - each time at greatly reduced decibels (that I now, at least, know how to calculate), I remind myself to keep at it. It is good to know this kind of math -- both in everyday terms AND electrical/ham radio terms -- and you're definitely making it more accessible. I will continue to make the effort. It may be true that P = I x E but it's also true that Knowledge = P

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