Real-Life Math -- Solution
First we must compute the wavelength of the transmitted signal:
lambda
= (3 x 108) / (900 x 106) = 0.33 m
Next,
we must find the distance between the transmitter and receiver when the path
loss is 70 dB. Recall the free space path loss equation:
PL
= -10 x log (lambda2 / ((4pi)2 x d2))
Backsolving
this equation for "d," we get:
d = (lambda / 4pi) x 10PL
/ 20
Substituting 70 dB for our path loss,
and 0.33 m for lambda, we obtain:
d = (0.33 / (4 x 3.14))
x 1070 / 20
d = 83 m
As
you can see, math is pretty important to telecommunications engineers. An
understanding of math is especially important as telecommunications increasingly
become digital. But not all areas of the telecom industry use a lot of math,
so if you don't like math, take heart!
It depends on which kind of
track they want to go into," says engineer Sharon Black. "If they're going
to be more technical, there is some math involved. But we take a lot of sociology,
business and philosophy students who are in those fields because they hated
math. They never want to take another math course beyond high school algebra,
and there's room for them."
However, if you plan to proceed on to
graduate work in telecommunications, you can expect some intensive math, says
Masoud Ardakani. He teaches a graduate course in digital communications.
"People
who take this course, they have to be very strong in math," says Ardakani.
"To understand these ideas they have to have a good background in math but
then to efficiently implement these ideas they have to be good in computer
hardware and software."
Other math-related skills are important too.
Among them are good analytical skills. Analytical skills are essential for
telecommunications engineers since they often have to troubleshoot problems.