- The math that was learned during the first three semesters is applied to problems in mechanics (physics) to learn how forces affect motion of bodies. This math is not at a particularly high level; however, they must be able to trust their math skills as the results of their analysis are not always obvious and evaluation of these results goes beyond the "intuition" that students have at this stage of their career.
- Visualization is important in setting up the problem as well as in the evaluation of their analysis. When several bodies are interconnected to form "mechanisms" the interactions among the bodies and their relative motion is hard to see.
Included in the course blog for ME 274 are learning modules for many problems from the course textbook. These learning modules bring together videos from physical situations, "solution videos" (real-time audio and video of handwritten problem solutions), animations of the motion of the system and text discussing the interrelation among these components. A good example of this is the Merry-Go-Round problem that Ed has introduced in today's work shop. You can see this learning module at: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME274/Videos/merry_go_round/
You can also see a number of other learning modules on the left side of the ME 274 course blog http://me274.blogspot.com/ under the "SOLN VIDEOS" links.
These learning modules are able to bring together the mathematics of analysis and the visualization of the motion of the physical system being studied. We have found them to be very effective tools for independent study by the students and for in-lecture teaching tools.
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