On Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:29:48 +0000, scott wrote:

>> I had a similar debate with a physics prof once in college - the course
>> was for engineering students, but I was a CS student, so I'd have
>> reference materials available to ensure that I was coding the forumulas
>> properly in my simulation - and if I didn't remember the exact formula
>> for calculating lift based on a particular airfoil shape, I wouldn't
>> guess, I'd look it up.
> 
> Guess it varies from place to place, in my engineering exams we had
> official data books that contained pretty much all the standard
> formulas. The exams were more about how to solve particular problems,
> which usually involved using several equations (and often a good bit of
> calculus) rather than seeing who had spent the most time memorising the
> formula.
> 
> But of course the shorter ones you used most often you remembered
> anyway, but the point was you didn't have to waste hours trying to
> remember them exactly.

What you describe is exactly how I envisioned working with it as I was 
developing simulations.  But the class was 90% engineering students and < 
10% CS students (and a few others).

Jim

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