Introducing Nonlinear Problems to Undergraduate Engineering Students

It is argued that preparing engineers for the challenging problems of present-day industry should involve the extension of homework problems to include realistic complications of nonlinearity and extensive use of the available computing facilities. This point of view has been illustrated through a simple Faraday's law problem of an electromechanical system that exhibits nonlinear effects if the resistance of the rails is taken into account. The procedure that is employed in this short note to solve the nonlinear equation is simple enough to be introduced at an undergraduate level for the engineering students.