Studying MIT's Nuclear Science and Engineering handbook - Part 1 of Part N

Just the first basic requirement is enough to make you shudder.

Hello all,

As part of the Journey to Nuclear Engineering, it’s important to look at what you’ll be expected to learn and understand.

As such, I thought “Why not look at what maths is required?”. This approach lacked sufficient detail - it didn’t tell you a whole lot more than what you’d think you need to learn - as covered by my previous couple of posts.

Change of approach, lets look at MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering handbook. It should tell you everything you’ll be expected to learn. And I wasn’t wrong…

The first mathematics basic requirement is 18.03 Differential Equations and contains:

• First-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs), using analytical, graphical and numerical methods.

• Linear ODEs with constant coefficients.

• Complex numbers and exponentials.

• Inhomogeneous equations:

  • Polynomial.

  • Sinusoidal.

  • Exponential.

• Oscillations, damping and resonance.

• Fourier series

• Matrices, eigenvalues, eigenvectors and diagonalisation.

• First-order linear systems:

  • Normal modes.

  • Matrix exponentials.

  • Variation parameters.

• Heat equation and wave equation.

• Non-linear autonomous systems

  • Critical point analysis.

  • Phase plane diagrams.

I am going to have my work cut out for me to even reach this level of comprehension. But I want to see how far I can go and I feel up to it.

A lot of this stuff I want to know about anyway. The great thing about MIT is most of their past courses are available to study through OpenCourseWare (it’s where I accidentally stumbled upon one of the nuclear physics subjects).

That’s it for tonight, early rise for work in the morning. Thank you and catch you for the next post.

Steve Frampton.