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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmum.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watmum!cdshaw
From: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Criteria
Message-ID: <270@watmum.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Sep-85 17:03:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmum.270
Posted: Sun Sep 22 17:03:14 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Sep-85 00:44:54 EDT
References: <702@wdl1.UUCP>
Reply-To: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 31

In article <702@wdl1.UUCP> jbn@wdl1.UUCP writes:
>The project required designing a flat metal link.  The link was to be made
>of a specified grade of aluminum, and had to carry a specified load.
>
>Each student turned in a drawing of their link.  A machinist actually 
>machined the link out of sheet aluminum; the student checked the link
>against the drawing, and when satisfied, presented the link for grading.
>The link was placed in a hydraulic testing machine and the specified load
>applied; if the link broke, the student failed the course.  Passing grades
>were then computed based on weight, with lighter weight links receiving higher 
>grades.
>
>This may seem harsh.  But this is what engineering is all about.
>
>						John Nagle

Sure. I'd hire a engineer who designed by theory alone... 
Hell, what is test equipment for but to see if eng. students can
design things that hold up to specified stresses. What if the stress 
specifications are wrong ? What if the aluminum has bubbles in it ?
What if any number of things?      THIS is what engineering is all
about !!! Not just whether you know theory or not, but whether you know
enough about your field to design something to work in all (or all plausible)
situations.

Not that I'm trying to tell John his business, but this example course of
his sounds kinda silly.

Chris Shaw    watmath!watmum!cdshaw  or  cdshaw@watmath
University of Waterloo
In doubt?  Eat hot high-speed death -- the experts' choice in gastric vileness !


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