English is important.
Engineering is importanter.
?ÿ
ENGINEER: Because badass problem solver is not a real job title.
One of my first teachers in school gave us this definition, "An engineer is someone who can do with one dollar what any damnfool can do with two dollars."?ÿ That may be a bit of an exaggeration but it does go to the heart of the problem.?ÿ Anyone can say, "Put in a 48 inch pipe", but does the flow analysis really only need an 18 inch pipe?
Andy
...?ÿAnyone can say, "Put in a 48 inch pipe", but does the flow analysis really only need an 18 inch pipe?
Andy
Years ago I worked on a large county road (multiple routes) project that kept me in constant touch with the district's maintenance supervisor.?ÿ Although uneducated he was wise beyond compare when it came to cross drains.
One crossing was "engineered" for a 30" pipe.?ÿ He let us know he placed a 36".?ÿ I asked him if he thought the 30" was undersized.?ÿ He said no, but he didn't have any 30" in the yard...
And there were several cross-drains with large pipes (48") that didn't seem to need anywhere near that size.?ÿ When questioned about it he explained it was all about the distance (depth) from the flow line to the finished road elevation.?ÿ Backfill was done with crushed limestone, at a noticeable cost....a 48" pipe required far less crusher run backfill?ÿthan a smaller diameter pipe.
After working with him for a year or two I realized that some 'engineering' could definitely be tempered with a little common sense at times.
I was born for this profession.?ÿ When I sat for the SAT i scored just shy of perfect on the math portion and might as well not shown for the langue portion.?ÿ The OSU engineering department loved me but I did have a professor tell me to get a pocket dictionary.
Happy Pi Day.
Most of the local engineers are minimalists and I'd say that their ratio of use 1 of sumpin' where most would use 3 or 4.
From water going over roads to failing dams and sinking condos they think that their math will fix anything.
Well yeah, for today, in a few it needs fixin' again.
@gschrock
"I forget who said it, but the quote goes "An [engineer/scientist/etc] can build a rocket that can go to the moon,"
Since you communicate with these people regularly with respect to editorial purposes, could you possibly find out why intelligent humans still cannot figure out how to use the Sun for energy on a worldwide basis economically? Musk is close but not quite there, yet!
I've wondered about this since I was a kid using a magnifying glass to cremate fire ants, and listening to my parents bitch about the electric bill, which back then was about $12.00.?ÿ
?
English is important.
Engineering is importanter.
?ÿ
ENGINEER: Because badass problem solver is not a real job title.
I always have said that I speak engineer because I was raised by one (undergrad in Chemical, masters in Nuclear).
Comes in handy because as of Monday I've been surrounded by them
?ÿ
....why intelligent humans still cannot figure out how to use the Sun for energy on a worldwide basis economically? Musk is close but not quite there, yet!
I've wondered about this since I was a kid using a magnifying glass to cremate fire ants, and listening to my parents bitch about the electric bill, which back then was about $12.00.?ÿ
?
I sat through a seminar not long back that was presented for electric supplier utility companies.?ÿ While the seminar was in reality a thinly-veiled 4 hour commercial for the presenter's software, they did touch on some current trends in depth.?ÿ One such subject was "Alternative" energy...meaning anything that produces electrical energy without burning fossil fuels.?ÿ Around here that usually means wind and solar.
One speaker implied (in my opinion) solar and wind as energy sources would always fall short in the overall industry because they were "unreliable".?ÿ I'm sure the speaker was attempting to paint wind and solar as problematic energy sources because of insurmountable things?ÿlike night time or varying wind speeds.?ÿ
I thought it was an extremely irresponsible remark....much like discounting ancient mans' boating as a means with which to explore?ÿthe world...simply because boats don't always float when you need them to.
Paden the engineer might've wanted the culvert to be smaller to impound some stormwater on the upstream side of the road in order to attenuate the peak flow.
one day I was out scanning a forest bridge (the longitudinal beams are 36" redwood logs) when the State Forester equipment operator, Doug, drove up in a pickup towing a 30" culvert pipe (he'd been by a couple of times already). He says with a big smile on his face, "we are just hauling this pipe around to look busy" followed by laughter. He eventually did drop it off somewhere because he drove by without it soon after that.
I may have been in discussion with a large firm whose name sounds like "Smesla" last winter about a position managing the surveying subcontractors for all of their commercial and utility solar farms.
Then, after multiple interviews, they released their third quarter statement stating that they were getting out of that market due to low profit margins.?ÿ Never heard from them again.?ÿ
@gschrock
Personally I think there more possibilities than using Fusion (or Fission for that matter). The Sun doesn't appear to be "dying" and we absolutely need to apply more R and D into utilizing this free energy source. Solar panels are great but require too much space, storage batteries, etc. to be efficient. Actually at my age I'll be in Surveyors Hell with all my friends before that happens.?ÿ ??ÿ
Anything that has the potential to lessen the power of?ÿthe?ÿpetro-dollars will be intentionally obfuscated and aggressively sidelined.....
English is important.
Engineering is importanter.
?ÿ
ENGINEER: Because badass problem solver is not a real job title.
I always have said that I speak engineer because I was raised by one (undergrad in Chemical, masters in Nuclear).
Comes in handy because as of Monday I've been surrounded by them
?ÿ
?ÿ
A rolling stone gathers no moss....
??Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves??
?? Friedrich Nietzsche
