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What type of math is used in marine engineering?

I have thought about marine engineering because I find boats very fascinating and think I would enjoy engineering them as a profession. #engineering

engineering engineer mechanical-engineering maritime marine-engineering
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Joseph’s Answer

Different subfields of marine engineering will use different parts of mathematics. There might be some areas where little more than basic arithmetic is needed, but most areas will go significantly beyond that. There's a lot of different areas of physics at play in boats and ships, and that means lots of areas of maths get used. Various areas involve materials strength, stress and strain; there's fluid dynamics, buoyancy, draft heights and such, so you can expect many areas will need time-dependent differential equations at some point. Volume vs surface area is important in buoyancy, so you can expect someone will be applying integration and square-cube law principles there. You've got the cyclical action of the waves, plenty of rotation in the engine and propulsion, so harmonic motion will get used with trig functions and exponentials. I'm sure there's plenty of other areas of mathematics that crop up in various other places too.
Thank you comment icon Thank you for responding! Ben
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Kofoworola Elizabeth’s Answer

For Marine Engineering, you will start with basic math, algebra and the likes, but as you progress, you need calculus, numerical analysis, etc. Because beyond maths, you would learn fluid dynamics, strength of materials, stress and strain; all these subjects would require some form of maths and physics. However, you have nothing to fear, everything won't be dumped on you at once, you will learn as you go.

Kofoworola Elizabeth recommends the following next steps:

You can start learning ahead.
Thank you comment icon Hi Kofoworola: Thank you for sharing and the progression. Sheila Jordan
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Annie’s Answer

Hey, good question! I've taken fluid dynamics before and it used algebra, linear algebra, calculus and differential equations. Mostly algebra though, since super smart researchers used the harder math to come up with equations that we use from the textbook. I hope you follow your dream- it sounds like such a rewarding career!
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