Math is Life Chapter 3

 

I won't be using any names in this Blog, I will make them up as I go along. For it is about the story, the names of places and people are not important. Even though a small part of me would love to disclose said information, I will be a lady and keep it to myself.

I will start by saying that I absolutely loved school! I have never said that about school in my life, but I will say it about "College" or "Trade school".

Everyone has grown up, and matured. Everyone is there because they want to be  and we're all stoked to learn and become something new and enjoy the privilege of higher learning. 

Unlike high school, where the majority including myself had way better things to do then be there and endure the social hell that I called "Evil Teen High" (just a personal experience).

So this felt new and exciting and everyone was so happy and friendly. I ended up having the time of my life and met some really good people all 4 years that I went back. 

How it works is you go to school for 6 weeks and write an exam for every year of your apprenticeship, at least it was in 2007. The schooling has been cut down and changed quite a bit since then and I believe it's only 3 years now to get your Red Seal, not 4 years like I had to do.

So school was awesome, the guys in my class were great and from all walks of life.

I will say guys because that's what they were there were no girls in my class or in the Electrical class next door, or Refrigeration next to that. The only girls I saw were in Carpentry and Welding, there were definitely a couple girls in each of those courses.

Now I'm sure you'll walk the halls today and see a totally different situation. I bet you'll see a lady in every course, even Iron Workers which I think are just Badass! I love how the world has changed in this way, it makes me feel hopeful and proud that we made it and pushed ourselves this far and that we are so far from being over! Now we are finally a "NORM".

The curriculum was something I never thought possible, so foreign and so far from anything I was used to or comfortable with.

School was so hard! It pushed me to places I did not think I could ever go.

I am not math inclined not at all, I'm an artist and quite chaotic in nature and math goes against all that I was at the time.

Maybe this is why I had such a great experience. Math pushed me so hard and helped stabilize me, I learned so many things about myself alone. I stretched my capabilities to wondrous proportions.

Math is life and life is math. Everything is numbers, down to energy itself. The binary code of life breathing.  It just makes sense and can solve the most complex questions of this universe.

I know this to be true, but God did I ever feel like an idiot sometimes trying to figure it all out and grasp some of the concepts. So many formulas to remember and the need to understand all that they mean. You can't just know the numbers you have to know how and why they all fit together or it's just doodles on a page.

Math, my love and hate relationship, I will be honest it took me some time to get the hang of it. Trigonometry, Algebra, Pythagorean Theorem, simple fractions and percentages, they all came into play everyday of my 12 years on the job. 

My calculator was in my pocket at all times, so know this if you want into the trades, math is in your everyday life and the norm for the majority, you're always trying to figure out something with a calculator.

We implement math in sheet metal by drafting our fittings which I will get into later on. We Calculate CFM (Cubic feet per minute), which is how we figure out how much air flow you need in any given space. As well as just plain layout and estimation measurements of a space. 

It is applied quite often in the use of machinery and figuring out what it takes to form different thickness and types of metal using different bend calculations and bend deductions. I have been doing a lot of that in the last 4 years of my career.

This is an example of a basic square to round fitting. You would cut out 2 of these pieces and form them on a Press break or manual Break and put them together to form a complete fitting.

This fitting is figured out by cross Triangulation/ trigonometry.

This picture is of a fitting I drafted for one of my first projects at a new job. I was pretty proud of it myself for figuring it out after being out of school for a couple years. The project turned out really good and I will touch on it later.

The shapes are endless as to the types of fittings we can draft and make. It still blows my mind today when I think about what we can create from a flat piece of metal. If you need to alter something or tweek it a bit, metal can be so forgiving, and tools like a good welding machine or pair of snips can change the day.

In my opinion the best part of trade school was the shop class, close the books and go get your hands dirty. Learn hands on, and get the feel of the machines and learn all of the tools of the trade.

This where I excelled and felt comfortable almost right away.

Some of the machines were intimidating, and some I had a hard time operating. There were some very funny times seeing me try to cut on a manual shear where you have to push down with your body weight on a large pedal to get the large knife to go down and cut your metal sheet. I would have to jump on it with two feet a lot of the time and still not complete a cut. This is when you know you have good people around you when they see you struggle and offer to help you with no ill will other than good old fashioned humor.

It was very hard for me to ask for help even till this very day, definitely one of my biggest faults, one that has cost me dearly in this life more then once. 

99% of the time I have ever asked for help it has been a great and wonderful experience nothing to be ashamed of, and yet still my pride struggles at times.

I felt very welcome by the students 80% of them anyways, the teachers well they didn't quite know what to do with me at first, lucky for them I have a great sense of humor and I am not so shy, so it helped me out a lot there in having them warm up to me so I could tell they were able to be themselves around me, but it did take some time, and didn't happen overnight.