probalby not a normal question
Jeffrey C.
Posts: 17
I want to be an electrical engineer of some sorts, I am really interested in robotics and high power microscopes, what should I do to prepare?· Are there any specific high school courses I could take (mine doesn't have much in the tech side of things) and when I graduate what should I do after.· It sounds silly but I don't know anything in this area and it's probably one of the most important things to know.· Hope it makes sense.
My name is Jeff, and I seriously couldn't think of a name...
My name is Jeff, and I seriously couldn't think of a name...
Comments
If you high school has a legobot robotics team - join - if not, see the Physics teacher and see if you can get one started....
Also check to see if any of your nearby colleges offer advanced courses for high school students.
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·1+1=10
Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 9/22/2005 2:06:21 PM GMT
You mention "some type of electrical engineer", and that will need to trimmed down, but not for a while (you probably don't need to decide until well after you start college.
As far as high power microscopy and robotics, you might find a microcope lab at a local college or university in the biology or medical department and talk with some folks there.
If you have some kind of local "design house" or other electrical/electronic manufacturer, you may be able to find someone there to talk with you. Keep in mind, these folks have a job to do, and some of them may not have the time or interest in talking with you. Others will.
You can also check out any career fairs. Explain to any employers that you aren't ready to apply for a job, but interested in what kind of jobs are available in your areas of interest.
Paul mentioned checking nearby colleges for advanced courses. You might want to include any local "tech schools" or other places with Associate Degree programs. While this may not be the full road to your ultimate career path, they may offer some opportunities to get some "hands on" experiences. Also, don't be afraid to ask about getting into some of these classes if they are offered at night or over the summer. Even if they "require" a high school diploma, some campuses will waive this requirement if you talk to the staff, and the class isn't full.
There are a number of fields that may be closely related to your interests, including science and other engineering fields. (Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering come to mind in terms of "robitics"), Don't be afraid to explore them. This isn't a decision you need to make anytime soon, so take your time, and make sure you explore any options that look interesting.
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John R.
8 + 8 = 10
Thanks
Into to Computer Programming (ICP), teaches programming on an abstract level (though the project assignments use a particular language), it teaches black box theory which is very useful in properly defining the scope of functions and subfunctions of a computer program which greatly assists you in software development.
Software Engineering builds upon ICP in a group environment working on a large scale project, and teaches you the nessesary skills to work in the industry.
If you plan of going the strict EE route you may find both of the courses to be of limited value to you. But the mantra of the CEE (Computer Electrical Engineering, a hybrid of CIS and EE) program of the university I attended was (paraphrased): You can't properly design a computer if you don't understand how it will be programmed, and you can't properly program a computer if you don't understand how it was designed.
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·1+1=10
The specific courses that you take in High School will not impact your life to the extent that you have been led to believe.
What will impact your life immensely is what you want to do.
Don't wait for some educational institution to teach you what you need to know, learn it yourself.
I was a total scumbag in H.S. and learned almost nothing.
After a decade of hard labor I went back to school and eventually earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry.
Don't worry about calculus, or any other specific dicipline.
The best way to learn is to set out to accomplish something and learn whatever is needed to make it happen.
Pick a project; maybe a robot that walks and chews gum or a sassy answering machine, it doesn't matter. Once you have set upon a goal you will find yourself immersed in all the technical details needed to make it happen.
The real world values people who can do things, people who can adapt on the fly to make it work against all adversity. If you become one of those people then you will succeed.
-Alexander
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I wonder if this wire is hot...
Jeff
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What's all this 1 + 1 = 10 and 8+8=10 stuff?· Tell me please!
Here's a good topic to begin your education!
Your assignment is to answer the following two questions:
In base 2, what is the sum of 1 and 1?
In base 16 (hexadecimal) what is the sum of 8 and 8?
David
Ryan
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Ryan Clarke
Parallax Tech Support
RClarke@Parallax.com
That is called binary, or base 2. We tend to be base 10-centric due to the fact that we have 10 fingers (and toes, hopefully)-
Maybe if we were born without thumbs we would all use octal....
The base 2 (binary) use by computers (and the fact that binary easily represents "on" and "off" or "true" and "false") is why the structure of computers/memory systems has evolved the way it has...every now and then someone makes a tri-state based offshoot....
Ryan
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Ryan Clarke
Parallax Tech Support
RClarke@Parallax.com
Ryan
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Ryan Clarke
Parallax Tech Support
RClarke@Parallax.com
10 binary
10 hex
Bob N9LVu
·· A 1 in binary is represented by: 1.· If you add another one to it, the answer is two, or 10 in binary.· The least significant digit is on the right.· If you added one again, you'd get three, or 11 in binary.· And finally, if you added one again, you'd get 100 in binary.· Does that help?
·· As for the Octal system, 8 and 8 is 16 (In Decimal), 10 in Hex, but in octal the representation is 20 (Sometimes &020).· The easy way to display some of this is to open your calculator in Windows and go to the View menu and select Scientific.· This way you can switch between number bases at will and see the representations of each number in one of four number bases.
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Post Edited (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 9/26/2005 10:28:33 PM GMT
Binary is count to two, and carry digit to next higher number.
1 bin + 1 bin = 10 bin or 2 dec or 2 hex
11 bin + 110 bin = 1001 bin or 9 dec or 9 hex
Hex is count to 15, and upon the 16th count you zero out, and carry a 1 to the next higher digit.
hex is the numbers "0-9, A,B,C,D,E,F,",so if you added 8 hex + 8 hex = 10 hex or 10000 bin or 16 dec
8 hex + A hex = 11 hex or 17 dec or 10001 bin
____________ 10 hex is 16 dec or 10000 bin
___________+ 01 hex is 01 dec or 00001 bin
___________= 11 hex is 17 dec or 10001 bin
00001 bin 1 dec 1 hex
00010 bin 2 dec 2 hex
00011 bin 3 dec 3 hex
00100 bin 4 dec 4 hex
00101 bin 5 dec 5 hex
00110 bin 6 dec 6 hex
00111 bin 7 dec 7 hex
01000 bin 8 dec 8 hex
01001 bin 9 dec 9 hex
01010 bin 10 dec A hex
01011 bin 11 dec B hex
01100 bin 12 dec C hex
01101 bin 13 dec D hex
01110 bin 14 dec E hex
01111 bin 15 dec F hex
10000 bin 16 dec 10 hex
The pattern just keeps on repeating...
Bob N9LVU
I have changed it, THERE IS NO "G" in hex...... SHEESH I should know better...
Post Edited (Robert Kubichek) : 9/26/2005 10:33:10 PM GMT
Take a look at chapter 2, activity 1 in IR Control for the Boe-Bot at http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/books/edu/IRRemoteBoebot.pdf. It gives a good explanation of Binary. If you plan on going into Electrical Engineering or Computer Science, everybody is right. Get all of the Math and·Physics you can· possibly take while in high school. All of the experimenting you can do on your own at home is a big plus too, besides being fun.
Jim K.
If you figure that you're going to be a BSEE (BSCE, BSEET, etc.) without Calculus and Differential Equations: it's NOT going to happen. To what extent does a design engineer pound out some gnarly Calculus on some job? I've never really met one who said he did. I love electron-pushing as much as, maybe more than, anybody here, but it's not going to get me an Engineer job.
And by the way, there isn't any "G" in Hexadecimal, contrary to another's post.
It's...
·0· 00000·· 0
·1· 00001· ·1
·2· 00010· ·2
·3· 00011· ·3
·4· 00100· ·4
·5· 00101· ·5
·6· 00110· ·6
·7· 00111· ·7
·8· 01000· ·8
·9· 01001·· 9
10· 01010··A
11· 01011··B
12· 01100··C
13· 01101· D
14· 01110· E
15· 01111· F
16· 10000· 10
17· 10001· 11
...and so on (no offense, anybody.)
Post Edited (PJ Allen) : 9/24/2005 2:40:28 AM GMT
DEC 25 = OCT 31
PJ is correct, there is no "G" in base 16 (hex)-
Here is another one to help you learn:
If I am in base 5, what is 12 after converted to decimal (base 10)?
(You'd never guess I love math, would you?)
Ryan
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Ryan Clarke
Parallax Tech Support
RClarke@Parallax.com
My school has some messed up math, or maybe it isn't, but it's the first like it ive ever seen. It's 101 201 etc till 501 and it encorperates algebra trig and geometry. 501 is a little pre calculus and then you can take AP calculus. yep. I can get to Calculus though, yay.
Off topic, but has anyone seen wedding crashers?
Base 2 is Binary
Base 8 is Octal
Base 10 is Decimal
Base 16 is Hexadecimal
There are other numerical base methods, but these 4 are the ones most used in programing.
Some others include;
BCD (B)inary (C)oded (D)ecimal
Base 3 or Trinary
Before, I messed up in the description of Hexadecimal, it is Numbers 0-9, and Letters A-F.... Ooppss
Bob N9LVU
Ok, a short lesson on number bases:
Most often people use base 10, or decimal, for every day use. Why? Look at your hands. You have 10 fingers. Count up, you hit ten, and suddenly you are out of fingers. Count to ten again. Now you've gone through your fingers twice. Two sets of ten (or twenty)- The 'roll-over' is at 10. How so? You have the digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. That's it. In a single 'place', you can only stick one of those digits. And since we only have those digits, how do we indicate MORE than 9? We write 10. Two digits. The one in the second place means "hey, we've gone through all the digits we have for the place before- how many times? Once." Take the 10 apart: it really means (1 * 10) + (0 * 1) = 10. What about 15? That means we've been through the fingers 1 time (the "1" in the "15") and we have five more fingers than that: 15 = (1 * 10) + (5 * 1).
But what happens if we count all the way through our fingers, TEN times? Well, ten fingers ten times is 100. (We ran out of digits for the "tens" place, since we already did the 20's, 30's, 40's etc...) Breaking 100 apart: 100 = (1 * 100) + (0 * 10) + (0 * 1).
That's all well and good, but what if I was born without thumbs? I would only have 8 fingers. So I start counting, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I don't have a finger for 9, so I can't use that digit. Since when I had 10 fingers I used the very last one to mean "all the fingers" (remember 10 means all nine used), the "8th" finger when I only have eight fingers will mean "all eight used"- so in BASE EIGHT, I would count like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10. WHAT? Think about it, it makes sense. When you hit the "eighth" finger, you mean "all fingers counted". So in base eight, 10 = (1 * 8) + (0 * 1). What about 15 in base 8? 15 = (1 * 8) + (5 * 1). So in base eight "10" means "eight things" but in base ten "10" means "ten things". In base eight "15" means "thirteen things" but in base ten "15" means "fifteen things".
That's probably enough for now. More later if you're interested.
Ryan
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Ryan Clarke
Parallax Tech Support
RClarke@Parallax.com
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·1+1=10
Did they get this one: "Ah, it's good to be 8530."? >[noparse]:)[/noparse]
Ryan
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Ryan Clarke
Parallax Tech Support
RClarke@Parallax.com
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·1+1=10
It's good to be alive (not dead).
Ryan [noparse];)[/noparse]
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Ryan Clarke
Parallax Tech Support
RClarke@Parallax.com
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·1+1=10
i'm serious. courses like these taught me more than any single ee course. they are vital to developing the communication and social needs in the professional workplace. and it gives you something to talk about to non ee's not to mention the chance to meet some stunningly interesting professors.
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engineer, fireman, bowler, father, WoW addict [noparse];)[/noparse]