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Lately I came across this post while doing my rounds as mod here. For obvious reasons I won't put in the name/handle of the person who posted it.

"daghan hambugero dri dah. hehehe "math pinaka sayun"; how about Fourier series, Differential equation and probability? hehehe i passed the licensure exam for engineering but until now di na gyud ganahan mo balik ana nga mga subject."

For the benefit of those who don't speak Cebuano, here's my attempt at translating this:

"There are a lot of braggarts in this thread, hehe claiming "math is easy". How about Fourier series, Differential equation and probability? Hehehe i passed the licensure exam for engineering but until now I don't want to take up those subjects again."

Now first, let's deal with what he claims that there were a lot of people "bragging" about their knowledge of math. Funny thing is, right after he says that, he then quips "I passed the licensure exam for engineering." Go figure that one out yourself.

Then, we come to his final lines. He passed one of the engineering licensure exams, yet he say he doesn't want to take up, talk about or perhaps analyze problems related to things like the Fourier series.

Now when Joseph Fourier developed the Fourier equations, he was trying to determine how heat transferred and was distributed, say, across a metal plate. About this time, there was a great scientific revolution going on in Europe, and thus the brightest minds in physics and mathematics were up and about solving problems here and there. Fourier was under Napoleon Bonaparte, and thus some of his findings could very well have aided in technological innovations of the French military and the Napoleonic French Empire.

So basically, the Fourier equations were a set of tools that were created as a result of trying to find the solution to a problem or interest he had. In other words, Fourier was NOT trying to PASS an engineering licensure exam when he developed these formulas--he invented the system as a set of tools, so that he could solve heat transfer problems, and other problems that dealt with decomposing any periodic function into the sum of an infinite set of simple oscillating functions.

Fourier (and perhaps other people who are REALLY into math and physics in the said thread here in iStorya.net) was NOT interested in the PAY/SALARY he might get if he became an engineer--he was interested in solving a problem.

So to me, saying that you passed a licensure exam to become an engineer, yet you don't want to go back talking/discussing about Fourier equations and whatnot, is similar to claiming you like being paid to be a carpenter, yet you don't want to touch a hammer or saw. I know my analogy is oversimplified, but I get irked at people who express their dislike of problem-solving tools, yet their professions obviously require them to be knowledgeable and adept in them. No wonder why the country is a-shambles.

-RODION