Re: Scientists and engineers
- From: "Peter H.M. Brooks" <peter@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 21:49:01 +0200
Lance wrote:
I am no theoretical physicist, but, if my experimental results at University were correct apples would fall to the ground a lot slower to mention just one consequence. It was useful, actually, to have to work backwards from the answer to get something vaguely acceptable to hand in.Peter H.M. Brooks wrote:
Well I am not a physical scientist and have never worked with engineers. I was interested in the contrast, however. Certainly it seems possible to have strong engineering traditions without having strong scientific traditions, and vice versa. I am not sure that Leonardo was really a scientist, but of course Newton also invented practical things like his reflecting telescope to add to your list. But, again, Thomas Edison had the strangest scientific ideas and still invented most prolifically, and some theoretical physicists are so impractical that rumour has it that experiments will go wrong if they merely happen to be in the same town...
There are lots of jokes about the personalities of these peoples:
"
An engineer, a mathematician, and a physicist are each sentenced to die by the guillotine. As the physicist is led to the guillotine, he decides that he'd like to observe the blade as it falls, perhaps to verify v=at, and he requests to be strapped in face up. The executioner agrees (why not? it all pays the same...), and straps him in. As the blade falls, it sticks about two thirds of the way down. Seeing this, the crowd cheers - the physicist must be innocent! So the executioner unstraps him and sets him free.
The mathematician is next. Being well versed in matters statistical he quickly asks to be placed face up as well - after all, the odds of it happening again are pretty good, especially if the initial conditions are similar. So the executioner obliges, and once again, the blade sticks about two thirds of the way down. Again the crowd cheers, and the mathematician is also set free.
Finally, the engineer. Not willing to do anything in public that is different from her peers, he, too, requests to be placed face up. As the executioner is strapping him in, he's looking up at the blade and studying the track in which it slides. As he does so, he notices something. "I think I see your problem..."
"
"
An engineer, a mathematician, and a physicist are each presented with a beautiful woman 8ft away, with the stipulation that at each time interval, they may move half of the remaining distance towards her.
The mathematician concludes that after N iterations there will be 8 divided by 2N feet remaining which will never equal zero so he gives up on the spot.
The physicist opines that if each iteration requires a finite amount of energy then the energy expended in the approach will be inversely proportional to the distance remaining and gives up on the spot.
The engineer says "8 feet, 4 feet, 2 feet, 1 foot, 6 inches, good enough for practical purposes".
"
"
An engineer, mathematician, and physicist are each asked to determine the volume of a red metal ball.
The mathematician measures the diameter, divides it by two to obtain the radius, and then performs a double integration.
The physicist weighs the ball and then weighs it again when immersed in water. Knowing the density of water and the difference in the two weights, she calculates the displaced volume of water, which is the volume of the ball.
The engineer turns to his reference text The Physical Properties of Balls and in the chapter entitled "Metal", finds the table labelled "Red". Searching for a row that the contains the appropriate model number (which is stamped on the ball), he reads across to the column "volume".
"
And so on...
--
When we have got to the end of this chapter (but not before) we must all turn back to the two blank chapters, on the account of which my honour has lain bleeding this half hour--I stop it, by pulling off one of my yellow slippers and throwing it with all my violence to the opposite side of my room, with a declaration at the heel of it-- - Tristam Shandy Chapter 4.LXXXIV.Laurence Sterne
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