Heat transfer is wrong. It should just be called heat, because heat is the transfer of energy from a high thermal environment/high temperature, to that of a lower temperature. You would not say Sahara Desert because it means desert desert, so why do we say energy transfer transfer?
Just like the oddity of this class’s title, I find some concepts within the Heat (transfer) class for mechanical engineers to be totally confounding. While it is easy to grasp the most basic concepts, such as understanding direction of energy flow, and the thermodynamic laws, it is a whole different universe to try and apply these concepts to walls and pipes.
Last week I had a quiz where I answered every question incorrectly. I am not exaggerating, the prompt said the coefficient of conduction (the heat that spreads through a solid) is not constant, so of course that read to me as coefficient of conduction is constant. Then when I was trying to find the temperature inside a wall, I somehow assumed that the middle of wall was the same as the surface of the wall, which is blatantly not true.
This is not the first time that I have bombed a quiz, especially when it comes to topics related to thermodynamics and heat. The hardest part of this is that I can feel the pressure to do better because it is almost as if I don’t do well, how can I ever become an engineer?
Unfortunately, the grading system does not have feelings, it does not care for whether you understand a concept or if you don’t understand. Now I have no idea how to fix it. I think what helps me to move on is to accept that heat topics are just my weakness in engineering.
The hardest part I wrestle with is, does admitting this weakness mean that I am giving up, or do I just have a better understanding of myself? Nowadays, I think it is more of the latter. It’s quite taxing to repeat in my head all the things that I could have done better. After being through so many tough engineering courses, I’d rather just move on. Even in interviews I just admit that I would rather a computer run the numbers for me, because it is definitely better than me at heat analysis.
Make no mistake, I did not make this realization after my first setbacks. This took a lot of reflection, thinking and a lot of questioning. So, heat transfer is wrong, but being too hard on myself isn’t right.
