My question then, is why does acquiring an electrical engineering degree require so much math?
Education is for the benefit of the student, not necessarily to provide a set of skills which are immediately usable. Most people who go to work after a college need to do quite a bit of specific learning directly at their place of work. If they have a broad educational base, they can learn new things faster and more effectively.
Exactly.
If university spits out people that have all the knowledge for a job, then it is a trade school producing technicians not a university producing engineers. (ObCaveat: nothing wrong with that).
For a neat example of that distinction by one of the masters of science fiction, Isaac Asimov, spead read "Profession" at http://www.abelard.org/asimov.php
Nope! That is what the modern fake technical education does---"monkey see, monkey do".
The old Technician training system was wide ranging, & albeit at a lower level, taught a wide gamut of theory.
Re:- calculus.
It
is easy to learn, but many students, (like me) were lost in the breakneck speed at which it was taught in the past at some institutions.
I started the Class, (night school after work, alongside several electronics subjects), had the flu, & missed a week.
We had just been introduced to simple "Functions of x", or whatever, but when I came back it was "functions of a function".
I bobbed along in the wake for a few weeks,then gave up!
The best thing I got out of that, was the text book, which I kept for years, dipping into it from time to time, but getting scared off.
Many years later, I had occasion to learn calculus, as part of an "in house" bridging training scheme.
It was pretty easy, for the most part, but when I couldn't understand the supplied text, the old book was gold!
Since that time, I haven't had any occasion to use calculus, so it has slowly drifted away.
As I am now retired, I have to learn how to sleep in front of the TV, & drool down my cardigan, so I doubt I will ever have the spare time to revise any branch of mathematics.
PS:I think my iPad is after me!
It substituted "die" for "sleep" in the above paragraph!