Today, Saturday March 14th 2015 is Pi day.  The first 5 digits of Pi(3.1415) can be used to represent today’s date. Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it’s diameter.  Although Pi is defined in reference to a circle, Its value is used in many branches of mathematics.

As an engineer or tinkerer, mathematics is important. Don’t let that scare you if you aren’t good at math.  We are in a unique position in history. The internet has made lots of information available at your fingertips.  This means that as long as your not on the cutting edge of design, you can usually find the information you need without having to do the calculations yourself.

As a professional engineer, you are more valuable to your employer(even if you are self employed) if you understand the key math to your project.  If you don’t know some of the principle math for a project, you can use reference designs for the section you don’t understand. You can use modelling software to modify your design before prototyping. You can go to online courses like Khan Academy that will help you understand the concepts. If you are a tinkerer or an engineer, I highly recommend you practice using your preferred search engine – Keep refining your search when you don’t find what you are looking for.

The universal programmer design that needs basic understanding of the math necessary to work out Ohms Law and simple logic. The complex math necessary for understanding the processor, or how a charge pump works has been all worked out for us and is hidden from the design.