The discussions above should not lead you to believe that analytical solutions
are unnecessary and that they should be discarded from the engineering
curriculum. On the contrary, insight to the physical phenomena and engineering
wisdom is gained primarily through analysis. The “feel” that engineers
develop during the analysis of simple but fundamental problems serves as
an invaluable tool when interpreting a huge pile of results obtained from a
computer when solving a complex problem. A simple analysis by hand for
a limiting case can be used to check if the results are in the proper range. Also,nothing can take the place of getting “ball park” results on a piece of paper
during preliminary discussions. The calculators made the basic arithmetic
operations by hand a thing of the past, but they did not eliminate the need for
instructing grade school children how to add or multiply.