Building Structure Analysis Class...

Ok, so if you know me at all, you know that the word MATH will bring forth sighs, groans and eye rolls (and possibly a little twitching) from me. For whatever reason I have always struggled with math. Give me a paper to write anyday, and I can fly through that, but computing x=y/nq or whatever that means just gets me riled up. So when I found out I had to take Technical Math last semester, I about fell out of my chair. I had always prided myself on getting through High School and two Bachelor's degrees without taking any physics, chemistry or college math.

Well hello humility, there I found myself one warm August day last year in a classroom with 20 other students, all boys, all under 20, and all Ski Area Operations students. That was one long semester. But me being the determined person that I am, I studied my rear off. With some sweat, tears, and banging of my head on my desk, I triumphed through the course with an A. Ya I know, I was shocked as well!

Man was I happy when I turned in the final on our last day of class. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy learning, and I found the brain exercise very good for my vitality, but man it was hard work, and I was ready to relax and not have to think about equations for a long long time. I was really looking forward to the second semester. I was scheduled for Sheetmetal, Carpentry, Research and Documentation and Building Structure Analysis. I was so excited to have the book classes behind me and start getting my hands dirty (other than the Research and Documentation class, but as I said before, I can knock out a paper in no time).

My first week of classes back in January went well. Until that fateful Thursday evening when I showed up to Building Structure Analysis class and was handed a geometry and algebra test...um, excuse me. Is this a joke? I took Math last semester. Please tell me this is a nightmare, please!

Oh no, no joke indeed. This was the real deal. Not only are we doing math, but we're doing engineering, that's right, straight up math processes I didn't even know existed.

What in the...what is this?? A little engineering, a little physics, a little calculus. Lord help me this is going to be rough. Rough indeed.
Yes, this is quite the struggle for me, but let me tell you the other side. Throughout this semester we've been learning things like how to assess a building for its live load capacity, and its dead load capacity. Do you know that trusses are very strong structures and that's why you see them so much on bridges. Do you know how to figure out how much each member of that stress can hold and whether its in compression or tension.
How about that column on your front porch. Any idea how much its actually holding. Ever wonder how something that skinny can hold up your house? I must say that learning about these processes is pretty dang fascinating. Really I never gave it any thought before, but bless those crazy geometry gods, there's some amazing things you can do with a few little equations!

Yes I know, I probably should have realized that getting into this field was going to require some math usage. But really I just want to hammer and drill stuff together, so I didn't think about it. But after going through the pain and suffering (and a little throwing of my calculator) I guess I can say I'm better off for it. I bet you don't know how to design a house to meet the Earthquake code for a house built in Missouri made of wood. (Seriously, the EQ code for Missouri is higher than that of the Pacific coast. Weird huh!)