First-order approximation Memes

Posts tagged with First-order approximation

Engineers And Their Beloved Linear Approximations
Engineering Math Science
12 days ago 3.6K views 0 shares
Engineers And Their Beloved Linear Approximations
The eternal engineering urge to linearize everything! This meme brilliantly captures the engineer's instinct to whip out Taylor series approximations faster than you can say "higher-order terms." When confronted with any complex function, engineers immediately reach for their trusty first-order approximation—transforming the scary, unpredictable world into a nice, manageable linear equation. Who needs accuracy when you can have simplicity? The transformation from horror to enlightenment when SpongeBob presses that "RELIABLE" button is the purest representation of engineering optimization I've ever seen. "Close enough for engineering purposes" has never been so perfectly illustrated!

The Superiority Complex: Physics Meets Engineering
Physics Academia Engineering Science Math
4 months ago 60.7K views 0 shares
The Superiority Complex: Physics Meets Engineering
Ah, the classic physics-to-engineering pipeline. Physicists enter engineering classrooms with that insufferable smirk that says, "You're approximating a cow as a sphere while I've derived the Standard Model." Yet there they are, secretly delighted to finally work on problems where you're allowed to ignore quantum effects and just use F=ma. The first-order approximation they mock is the same simplification they'll gratefully embrace when their advisor demands actual results by next Tuesday. Forty years in academia taught me one thing: theoretical superiority is directly proportional to distance from practical application. But we all cash the same paychecks in the end.