Something to Think About - Comments?
Something to Think About - Comments?
(OP)
Ran across the following today - thought I'd post it and see what responses we will get . . .
"For the engineer, ... , there are many possible answers, all of which are compromises of truth and time, for the engineer must have an answer now; his answer must be sufficient for a given purpose, even if not true. For this reason an engineer must make assumptions he knows to be not strictly correct – but which will enable him to arrive at an answer which is sufficiently true for the immediate purpose." H. Q. Golder (1948)
"For the engineer, ... , there are many possible answers, all of which are compromises of truth and time, for the engineer must have an answer now; his answer must be sufficient for a given purpose, even if not true. For this reason an engineer must make assumptions he knows to be not strictly correct – but which will enable him to arrive at an answer which is sufficiently true for the immediate purpose." H. Q. Golder (1948)





RE: Something to Think About - Comments?
"Classical soil mechanics has evolved around a few simplified models which do not fit the properties of most real soils sufficiently for useful and safe predictions to be made... Since we cannot change the soil to fit the soil mechanics, perhaps we should change the soil mechanics to fit the soil. The theory which fails to fit their behaviour is problematic, not the soil." (Vaughan, 1999)
RE: Something to Think About - Comments?
Even our best guesses are but platonic shadows seen from the cave. Maybe the gnostic Job was on the point when bemusing
"Where is the knowledge?"
"Between those living you can't find it"
RE: Something to Think About - Comments?