SCI2050 Art of Approximation in Science and Engineering
For historical reasons, our courses are organized by disciplinary area, be it mechanics, calculus, differential equations, or molecular biology. However, there are modes of reasoning that span many areas of science or engineering. Nine such crosscutting modes of reasoning are the focus of the proposed course. The nine modes group themselves into three approaches to the complexity of the world: (1) organizing the complexity (for example, with divide-and-conquer reasoning); (2) discarding apparent complexity (for example, with symmetry or dimensional analysis); and (3) discarding actual complexity (for example, by approximating with spring models or lumping).