I don't much like physics. I'm not going to become a mechanical engineer. I don't particularly care about the cross-sectional tensile elasticity of an irregularly shaped plate with a hole in it.

Possibly this is why I'm being lectured on it. Long distance, no less.

Multiple choice like rabbits.

Mechanical engineering in a nutshell: Basically it's just a big headache. "...as long as your elements are polyhedrals and not triangles- square or better- you'll get an answer. Otherwise it'll give you a false answer." *_*

"We do all these things to get it more and more exact, and then what do we do? We add a really, really big fudge factor at the end."

"So you sit there and calculate things as precise and accurate and nitpicky as possible- and then you just say 'screw that, make it twice as safe just in case'. Gad, what's the point then?"

"The point is, is that is works. The things that engineers design work, yes? The things that engineers don't design end up breaking, or warping, or blowing up, or get sued because they didn't work."

(The point is, he lost me when he started talking about elasticity. Now he's talking about ultimate strengths and fatigue strengths and rotating beams. *head h u r t s*)

"So that's what I'm doing in my fourth year of engineering."

"Your ...fifth year, you mean."

"Shh! It's an extremely large value value of 4. That's engineering for you."