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Visual Basic
Visual Basic (VB) is a programming environment from Microsoft in which a programmer uses a graphical user interface to choose and modify pre selected sections of code written in the BASIC programming language. Visual Basic is widely used to write working programs. Microsoft says that there are at least 3 million developers using Visual Basic.
In my numerical applications course, I used Visual Basic to create programs to solve differential equations that had no closed form solution. Using Visual Basic, I was able to use greater precision and save time for repeated calculations.
Solving a non-linear equation using Visual Basic - One typical problem in engineering is the study of heat transfer through a wall. The coefficient of conduction, convection, and width of the wall are used to define what's called the Biot number. This number is then used then to solve several roots of a trigonometric equation which will then be used to solve the amount of heat transfer through the wall. I created a program the calculates the first four roots of trigonometric equation.
Click here to view my program (exe file)
Click here to view my code (txt file)
Calculating deflection of a beam - Solving higher-order Another typical mechanical engineering problem is to calculate the deflection, delta, of a beam and its second moment of inertia, I. This program inputs the force, P, length, L, modulus of elasticity, E (30x10^6 Pa for steel, 10x10^6 Pa for aluminum), width, b, and height, h to calculate the deflection and second moment of inertia.
Click here to view my program (exe file)
Calculating a derivative from an unknown function using data points - Another program I developed takes data from a function of time, and calculates the derivative. The program will then save the data to a file with the x values (time), y values (temperature), and derivative (rate of change of temperature). It also outputs the temperature at any point within the interval, even if that point is not on of the data points. I used an accurate, non-linear method for interpolation for precise results.
Click here to view my program (exe file)
A data file is needed for this program to work (txt file). The first column of the file are the x values, and the second is the y values.
Click here for sample data to use in the program (txt file)
Click here to view my code (txt file)