You don’t need to understand anything about math or physics to drive a car.
A surface-level understanding is fine if you want to make modifications and wrench on engines in your spare time.
You can even be a decent engineer without a strong foundational understanding as long as you can grasp how engines have worked over the past few decades.
But if you truly want to stretch the scope of the possible. To re-invent what a car can be and to make significant technical breakthroughs, then a deep foundational understanding is critical.
The effectiveness of an engine is based on how well the engineers can control the rapid explosions of gasoline fuel and translate that into mechanical power to drive the wheels. Electric vehicles are similar, but instead of liquid fuel flowing throughout the powertrain, it’s electrons running through wires.
That’s the level where the magic happens.
That’s how deep we need to be willing to go to make a difference.
-Brandon