How much math is required for the MARS trade?

[spears99]

Hi all,

I am thinking of doing the MARS trade for the reserves and wanted to know the level of math that was involved? If someone who has/is doing the MARS trade could detail the kind of math involved and how often it's used, that would be great. Thanks!

 

[Otis]

Have you actually gone to the forces.ca website and seen what MARS officers do?

I would think that to navigate a ship around the world and through narrow passges, you would need some serious math ... vectors and angles and triangulation ... not to mention other things like volumes etc etc etc.

As to how often you'd use it ... like, every day? Every watch? Every time you're training?

 

[Lex Parsimoniae]

Mental math is used all the time when at sea or in a simulator.  Know your multiplication tables, basic trigonometric functions, and the Sine table but that's about it. 

The Sine function is usually used to figure out Closest Point of Approach (CPA).  If you recall grade 9 math - great.  If not, the sine function takes an angle and tells the length of the y-component (rise) of that triangle.  That way you can measure the bearing and range of a buoy for example, then Sine of the angle X range will give you the range at which you'll pass.  Also, useful for things like figuring out how much to adjust course, amend the allowance for tidal stream, set and/or leeway, amend ETA, etc.

Frequently you need to calculate basic things such as speed required to get somewhere at time X.  Or how far you will travel in Y minutes.  Rule of thumb: Speed X 100 = distance traveled in 3 minutes (in yards).  Example; A ship travelling at 5 kts will move 500yds in three minutes. This can be broken down to the minute and say it travels 166 yds per minute, or roughly one hull length in one minute.

There are other uses but they're basically just variations on the themes above.

 

[Otis]

*Woosh* (the sound of all that going over MY head...)

 

[SocialyDistorted]

I'm glad I was actually able to understand and relate to that! Will skipping on adv. functions and calc be detrimental? or is that overkill for the math needed

 

[Lex Parsimoniae]

I'm glad I was actually able to understand and relate to that! Will skipping on adv. functions and calc be detrimental? or is that overkill for the math needed

That's overkill.  Just takes practice.  A useful rule of thumb to remember your Sine values is: 6 degrees = 0.10, 12 degrees = 0.20, 18 degrees = 0.30, 24 degrees = 0.40, 30 degrees = 0.50, 36 degrees = 0.60, 42 degrees = 0.70.  The rule isn't as accurate above 42 degrees but those angles aren't much value in practical use anyways.

 

[Pusser]

When I first started, a MARS ROTP candidate had to complete first year university math and physics, but an OCTP MARS candidate (i.e. straight out of high school - no university) only needed high school math and sciences (college prep mind you).  I never understood why, as the MARS training was identical for both.  As I recall, the most complex math we got into at VENTURE was in the course on hydrostatic stability (i.e. how to keep your destroyer from doing an Eskimo roll) and that really wasn't that difficult.  This is an Arts grad talking.  In short, don't worry about it.  If you can meet the academic requirements to get into the program, you can do the program.  Very few people fail MARS training on academics.  My class had a 75% failure rate (we were special) and it was all in the practical application of skills.  Nobody had trouble in the classroom.