Online aero course

Discussion in 'Hydrodynamics and Aerodynamics' started by markdrela, Mar 3, 2014.

  1. markdrela
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    markdrela Senior Member

  2. Erwan
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    Erwan Senior Member

    Hi Everybody Hi Mr Drela,

    The book are already delivered, mine arrived yesterday.

    Despite mention that 16.101 is not a pre-requisite to enroll 16.110

    I decide to be conservative and will wait next Sept to enroll 16.101 first

    In the meantime I have something to chew.

    Cheers

    Erwan

    .
     
  3. philSweet
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    philSweet Senior Member

    At first blush, the EdX platform for 16.110 appears to be a huge improvement over the one that supported 16.101. Worth the wait.
     
  4. Erwan
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    Erwan Senior Member

    Thanks PhilS,

    Do you mean next 16.101 will benefit from improvents you mention, regarding 16.110 ?

    In any case I have to make a thorough revision of differential equations

    Regards

    EK
     
  5. philSweet
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    philSweet Senior Member

    The first chapter of the book you just got does present them in a ,um, rather compact form. In the intro course, they come at you at a manageable pace. I hadn't looked at that stuff in 30 years, and even then, my proficiency wasn't too high. I just used wiki for math topics and Mathmatica for some calculations. The 16.101 basically addresses one new aero topic and one exercise in math technique with each chapter. Occasionally, the math is somewhat distantly related to the aero topic, but by the end, you have the theory and the techniques to do some real damage. As long as you have had regular multivariable calculus and at least seen differential and integral operators, you should be able to move the vector field calculus along at pace that keeps up with the course. For me, my antiquated notation was a bigger problem. I taught myself some of this stuff from 50 year old books, so I was about 80 years behind in notation.

    Years ago, I also developed my own notation for when I programmed in Fortran. My system of subscripts, superscrips, and diacriticals translated easily into Fortran variables. I kept misreading all the little subs, sups, tilds, dots, bars, gravs, acutes, etc because I was backsliding into my homebrew notation. I had to sit down and write out pages of Greek alphabets as if I had been bad in studyhall:D
     
  6. Erwan
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    Erwan Senior Member

    Thanks,

    The fact you mentione your 30 years old math background, makes bit moderatly confident.
    I m a bit in a similar situation, I was attending something between a Bachelor of Arts and a Master degree in Maths during 3 years between 1978 and 1981.

    The book looks very attractive, at first glance it looks like a "Pedagogic breakthrough"
    regarding fluid dynamics. But I m probably too rookie with these matters to be able to make any relevant judgment.

    So about 16.101 vs 16.110 what is your experience ?

    Cheers

    E
     
  7. philSweet
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    philSweet Senior Member

    I'm still playing with the buttons on the new platform. I just ordered the text book. I find it awkward operating out of multiple windows trying use the online textbook. It works, I just feel that a book is worth the money and will save me time and frustration. And I can doodle in it:p

    In the 16.101 platform, A PFD version of the notes was made available and it was printable. I ended up printing a lot of it because there were some navigational glitches (problems with formulas/mathjax) with that platform that were gradually corrected over time. The online text of 16.110 is not printer friendly.
     
  8. markdrela
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    markdrela Senior Member

    The online text cannot be downloaded or printed, and is not meant to be. In any case, I think buying the book is significantly cheaper than color-printing and binding it yourself.
     
  9. philSweet
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    philSweet Senior Member

    Yes, Mark, I figured that was the case. I hope everyone at MIT and EdX find this model has enough upside for all parties so it can continue.
     
  10. andybrnr
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    andybrnr Junior Member

    Thanks for the course, Mark, this is demystifying some corners of aero for me. I agree having the book at hand is better than the online viewer... paging through the online version isn't quite as easy. Probably a mod for a later version of the course, but if you could search the textbook for math and symbols by entering a search string in Tex, that would be very handy.

    Side question you might have an answer to: if I wanted to play around with aircraft configurations, is there a decent 3d panel code with a BL model that's open source? I don't mind compiling/interfacing to something rough, but I haven't been able to find much to download by googling...
     
  11. johnhazel
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    johnhazel Senior Member

    I ordered my book yesterday. All I needed to know was "author Mark Drela." For anybody not familiar with this guy, he is one of the "best of the best" in theory and practice. He has a long history of developing the science and building something that works.

    Among hundreds of points I could make: Particularly of interest to this forum's members is the world speed record holding human powered watercraft, Decavitator. Mark was a major player. (including being the motor!) Yes the guy "talks the talk and walks the walk!"
    http://lancet.mit.edu/decavitator/
     
  12. Erwan
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    Erwan Senior Member

    Andy,

    You should search for OpenFOAM, but that's not for dummy like me.

    Cheers

    E
     
  13. Erwan
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    Erwan Senior Member

    16.101x Not available for 09/2014?

    Hi Everybody,

    Last year I was too late that's why I planed to enroll 16.101.x this year before 16.110.x, but unfortunatly I don't see 16.101.x in the program to come for 09/2014.

    Any Insider explanation?

    Thank you in advance Mark.

    Regards

    Erwan
     
  14. markdrela
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    markdrela Senior Member

    The current plan is to offer 16.101x in Fall'15, and 16.110x in Spring'16.
    But that's not guaranteed at this point.
     

  15. Erwan
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    Erwan Senior Member

    Thank you Mark.
     
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