Real-Life Math
Dick Johnson says all good engineering involves design calculations.
Naturally, math is needed for that. You cannot strictly rely on computers.
An optical engineer must be able to reasonably predict an outcome. "You need
to be able to get a quick idea of how the calculation will come out in order
to know what ideas to pursue," says Johnson.
Certainly, in order for
an optical engineer to like their job, says Gregory Pierce, it helps to like
math. As an optical engineer, you will be using math endlessly to solve problems.
However, says Pierce, some positions in optical engineering will involve less
math than others. For example, you might go into product design or technical
support.
"You can be great at math, but not understanding what needs
to be done to solve a problem makes the math skills useless," he points out.
However,
once you know all the math principles, you can solve complicated laser problems,
explain rainbows, understand aberrations and refractions and use lasers to
create solutions.
The most basic concept of light is that it travels
quickly and in a straight path until some object blocks it or bends it, such
as glass. How fast does light travel? Pretty quickly: 186,000 miles per second.
The
sun is about 93 million miles away from the Earth. Given the basics you know
about light, can you say how many minutes it would take for light from the
sun to reach the Earth? How many hours would it take if you traveled the same
distance by a car going 60 miles per hour?