r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Plane-Temporary-8501 • Jul 19 '25

Career Advice How much Maths is in ChemEng?

Hii, im a year 12 student who is currently thinking about what course i should do. And im stuck between Maths and ChemEng. I only recently discovered a Maths course is just mainly proofs which isnt exactly what i was looking for. I absolutely love Maths and i really want to continue it in the future and I think the maths in engineering is my best bet as it is applied. But the thing is, i dont do physics so the engineering courses i could do are very limited. So i can really only apply for ChemEng.

My main question is “Is chemical engineering majority maths and roughly what percentage of the course is just maths?”

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u/vovach99 Jul 19 '25

ChemEng contains huge amount of physics, so you won't escape from physics if you choose chemistry :)

3

u/RopeTheFreeze Jul 19 '25

Huh, I was under the impression it was mostly math and chemistry. Like mixing, diffusion, fluids, thermo, etc. where does the physics come in? Or are we counting fluid/thermo stuff as physics?

I'm great at any physics where my letters don't have hats on them!

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u/claireauriga ChemEng Jul 19 '25

My take as an engineer more than ten years out of uni:

For university, the bit of physics you need is forces and vectors, particularly for fluid dynamics. If you've done a mechanics module in maths you've already covered the exact same thing and will be well-prepared.

In industry, physics has been useful for me in terms of basic understanding of analytical techniques like spectroscopy and diffraction.

4

u/vtkarl Jul 19 '25

That’s all physics in my opinion. I did a physics degree after BS CHE and PE.

Undergrad and high school physics focuses on balls flying in the air and some rudimentary DC electricity.

Einstein’s phd was in how to figure out molecular weight of a polymer. Physics is still struggling with vorticity, the onset of turbulence, and the meaning of the Reynolds number.

2

u/vovach99 Jul 20 '25

Physicsl chemistry (full of physics, that's more physics than chemistry). Thermodynamic, it's almost all about physics too. To understand chemical engineering in general (how columns, adsorebers, pumps, heat exchangers etc. work), you have to study physics. If you want chemistry, you may become lab assistant (minimum wage salary and hard labour). All the rest chemists have to study physics anyway