Common Mistakes Made by the Students in CE272 and CE372 Courses

(Prepared by Dr. Zafer BOZKUS, July 2006)

1) Wrong use of the specific weight, ; and density, of water; and the gravitational
acceleration, g. These terms are commonly found in the equations of fluid mechanics.
The value of the specific weight for water is 9810 N/m3 and the value of the density
for water is 1000 kg/m3, and gravitational acceleration 9.81 m/s2. Wrong use of these
terms result in big mistakes in problem solutions. This mistake is usually made when
using Bernouilli equation or General energy equation in which these terms appear.

2) Forgetting the units of the physical quantities. Numbers alone without the proper use
of units do not mean anything to us, engineers. For instance, if you are to compute a
force you should put N for the force unit Newton in SI unit system next to the value,
such as 4.6 N. The value of 4.6 alone does not say much to anybody. You have no
right to impose a guessing effort on the Instructor. We cant read your mind. We grade
you on the basis of what we see on the exam paper. For this silly mistake students
always lose some points which cost them dearly at the end of the semester.

3) Missing the SI prefixes in pressure or force expressions. For instance, pressure may
be given as 120 kPa in a problem. This means the pressure is 120 000 Pa, since the
prefix kilo, k=103. Forgetting this fact and using just 120 Pa in the problem solution
may cause great errors. Another example would be the following. A force of 5.6 MN
means 5.6x106 N since the prefix of M (Mega) is equal to 106. Imagine how much
error you would be making if you forgot that 1 million in your solution!

4) Not considering the direction properly when applying the momentum equation.
This is done especially for the presure forces. Students put the pressure force away
from the control volume despite the fact that pressure force always acts into the
control volume, normal to the control surface sections. Direction mistakes are also
made when writing the velocity components in the momentum equation in cartesian
coordinates.

5) Irresponsible behaviour of not checking your exam grading and your solutions after
the exam results were announced and made available for the students to see their
mistakes. We the Instructors, the teaching assistants are all human. We are all prone to
making mistakes as well. A simple addition mistake made by us in your exam may
cause you a half letter grade ( sometimes a whole letter), like receiving a DC instead
of a CC. Although rare, it is not impossible. In addition, seeing your own mistakes
prevents you from repeating them in the future exams.

6) Not studying properly and just memorizing solution of some old problems. You
cannot and should not expect to have a good grade in Fluid Mechanics courses just
reviewing some old exam questions. The proper way to prepare for the exams is, first
of all, to attend the lectures regularly, to review the class material on the same day of
the lectures, to solve the assigned problems from the scratch on your own or with a
group of friends. But make sure you contribute to the group study. If you still have
difficulties make a good use of the office hours of your Instructor and the teaching
assistants.