A common toss up for students is whether to major in mechanical or electrical engineering

These are two of the most popular engineering majors

so I wanted to address this for anyone's who on the fence

Now of course there's no right answer for these two, and I'm not gonna give an answer really

These majors both have huge job opportunities in lots of sectors and have high salaries

I'm just going to explain the similarities and differences in the curriculum and careers

so you can make a more educated decision for yourself

Now to start off simple, if you've taken physics in high school, think of what you enjoyed more

The circuits part or the mechanics part, like projectile motion, forces, energy,  momentum, etc

I know you only got a small glimpse of everything, and this won't be a deciding factor

but could at least point you in the right direction of electrical or mechanical engineering respectively

Now when it comes to the curriculum, let's just put it simply, what interests you more?

Circuits and electronics, signals, some programming, and yes this would your first actual program you make

and electromagnetic waves

or, are you going enjoy analyzing complicated forces in various systems,

fluid dynamics whether it be water or air

and heat transfer and thermodynamics

As you can see the curriculum for both these majors is very different

but there are some similarities that I will explain soon

In a previous video I talked about why electrical engineering is a difficult major.

To summarize, electrical engineering is a little more "magical"

As in when you get that antenna sending wireless signals,  or the circuit lighting up an LED, or whatever you have

you can't physically see how it's happening

You can't see electrons moving through wires, or wireless signals moving through air

You have to understand the equipment used to detect everything and the physics behind what is going on fundamentally

This isn't as true with mechanical engineering cause especially in undergrad

You'll analyze fluid moving through a pipe

or an engine,

or the forces and motion on a complex system

You can often visualize these more, and see them work

So now for those who are curious about "How much math will use in these two majors?"

They are very similar and they both use more than most other engineering disciplines

And do expect to see calculus level math

Mechanical engineers use calculus to analyze the vibrations of a system using differential equations

to analyze complex heat flow,

Or something just like a rotating object often involves calculus to solve for how it will rotate

given some torque

Those values you see indicate basically how hard it is to rotate the object about some point

whether it be it's center, or end.

This is called inertia and it's equation looks like this.

Electrical engineers use calculus to prove how current will move through a circuit with inductors, capacitors, and resistors (not shown here)

They use it when analyzing AM and FM radio signals

They use it when analyzing electromagnetic waves in general and how they are created from something like current in a wire

Again, you may have seen something like this in high school physics already

but probably without calculus unless you took AP physics C

So if you love math then that's good news cause both of these have a lot

and you'll see way more beyond calculus AB and BC

And if you choose electrical and really enjoy high level math

then I can say that RF might be the best concentration for you

RF stands for radio frequency, and is essentially the wireless communications concentration of electrical engineering

Those students learn more about wireless systems, antennas, and so on and those classes will be very math and calculus intensive

If you're not so much interested in high level math, then I can say that not every class you take will involve calculus

for either of these majors

But just be warned that it will come up and you should enjoy it somewhat before entering either of these two majors

Now, mechanical engineers do take some circuits and electronics classes

whereas electrical engineers don't take any mechanical engineering classes, so keep that in mind

Honestly, a lot of mechanical engineers don't enjoy their circuits classes cause it's not what their interested in

but as a mechanical engineer you will take about two classes on circuits and electronics

which surprisingly covers around four electrical engineering classes

It's just condensed and simplified for the mechanical engineers

They go through it faster, but in less depth

Then this leads to the fact that mechanical engineers can concentrate in mechatronics

This is where mechanical engineering meets electrical and computer engineering

If you choose this you will learn more about programming and circuiting so you can work on things like robotics

Instead of just being able to make something structurally

You will have the skills to build it, circuit it, and program it to maybe detect and avoid obstacles

or whatever your project would be.

Knowing this, if someone came up to me and said "I like mechanical and electrical engineering the exact same, tell me what to choose."

I would probably say, go with mechanical engineering, and concentrate in mechatronics

You'll be exposed more to both fields than you would as an electrical engineer

You'll have a great background for the job market

and maybe if you pursued a master's degree, you'd be able to make an easier decision since you have more exposure to both disciplines

Again, there's no right answer, but all things equal and I had to pick, that's what I would say.

Now let's move on to careers

A question I hear often is, "If I want to work on (blank), should I major in electrical or mechanical engineering?"

and sometimes that's a valid question, but other times not so much

For example, someone says "I want to work on alternative energy, should I pick mechanical or electrical?"

Well guess what, you'll see both those majors all over companies that work on alternative energy

So let's say you want to work on wind energy, well which part?

Do you want to work on generating and delivering large amounts of electrical power?

Do you want to take classes in how high power systems work

electric motors, generators, and so on?

Or do you want to analyze maybe the structure of the wind turbine

Like what shape will cause more rotation from the wind, where you need to understand fluid mechanics in terms of air.

Or maybe you want to help with the manufacturing of the machinery that is used.

Same thing applies for solar energy

Do you want to work on the circuitry for the solar panels, and distributing the electrical power that's created?
Or do you want to work on designing and manufacturing the panels themselves?

Or work on the lenses that track and focus the sunlight to maximize efficiency and so on

Let's say you want to work on satellites

Well do you want to work on the satellite communication?

Or the sensors on board that take measurements?

or maybe a remote sensing system that's on the satellite? That's all electrical.

Or do you want to analyze the temperature changes during orbit

or the vibrations that occur to ensure nothing is damaged

Even something down to the Gimbal that turns the antenna needs mechanical engineers.

When an antenna needs to track another, it uses a Gimbal that often has three axes of rotation

You'd mount an antenna on it, so it could turn to communicate with the receiver

If the receiver is in line, then everything's fine

But if during orbit they move out of line with each other, the gimbal would turn the antenna as needed

An electrical engineer could analyze the signals that tell the gimbal how much to move

and the mechanical engineer implements the gimbal to actually move as accurately and efficiently as possible

Maybe you want to work on the new electric cars that have autopilot

Electrical engineers might implement sensors, and the programming that instructs the vehicle to move based on the sensors reading's

They could work on any high power circuitry and electronics that the vehicle uses

Whereas mechanical engineers could work on the motors

the design and structure of the car for safety or even aerodynamics

and also the manufacturing of the car parts themselves.

Go ahead and look up "electric vehicle projects" at colleges

and you'll see almost exclusively electrical and mechanical engineering students working on these

Maybe you want to work on prosthetic body parts for people

Well do you want to analyze the electric signals coming from people's muscles

And use that, along with some programming, to tell the prosthetic arm to grab something for example.

Or do you want to make sure the prosthetic limb can supply the right amount of force to pick up that object

or can withstand a certain amount of force without breaking

and is light enough to not cause stress on the person's body

This is what biomedical engineers might be passionate about working on

But you'll see electrical and mechanical engineers all over these projects as well

Even something like working on printers needs both disciplines

Printers receive lots of signals and use many electronic components to make it work

which is where electrical engineers come in

But remember in an inkjet printer there are moving parts that need to be extremely accurate to place the ink

Mechanical engineers are needed for that

This applies to 3D printing as well

Where there needs to be extremely precise placements, especially when we are 3D printing stuff like organs now

mechanical engineers would help design these systems

There's rockets, aircrafts, robotics, and I could go on for a while

so many things need electrical and mechanical engineers

It's actually less common to see just one discipline working on a big project

For these two majors it's not so much which major is better to work in some sector

it's a matter of what you'll enjoy more

What do you have more interest in learning and understanding when it comes to the projects I've shown you

Now of course there are things that do involve just one major or the other, but usually on a more zoomed in scale

Like if you wanted to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, you wouldn't go into electrical engineering

But if we zoom out to just cars in general, then again you could go into either major

at least now with electric cars becoming more popular

It's going to help to know which sector you want to go into whether it be biomedical, aerospace, automotive, etc

but also specifically what part of the projects you'd be more interested in working on

Remember this will be your life almost everyday, make sure you are going to enjoy going through the actual process of making these designs come to life

Put yourself in the shoes of these people and think "What will I like doing more?"

Now this video was focused on electrical and mechanical engineering

but just note many more engineering disciplines are needed for all the projects and careers I've talked about

So many things are multidisciplinary now

But when it comes to these two majors which have so many positive aspects, it comes down to what you'll enjoy doing more

Remember to like and subscribe, and if you're still having trouble deciding, check us out at majorprep.com, and good luck on your search.

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