What do you guys do when?
What do you guys do when?
(OP)
When you are surprised by the calculation results - I mean when you expect dimensions to be larger but calculations show thats not the case.
There has been few times when I was expecting some beam section dimensions (larger spans) to be a lot larger but after calculations/analysis I was surprised. Do you trust calculations completely or do you also take into account/consider your intuition and make things lil bigger regardless (to be on a safe side)?
That may be a silly question coming from an engineer but sometimes I feel uneasy when my expectations (based on experience) and actual model/analysis results are pretty different.
There has been few times when I was expecting some beam section dimensions (larger spans) to be a lot larger but after calculations/analysis I was surprised. Do you trust calculations completely or do you also take into account/consider your intuition and make things lil bigger regardless (to be on a safe side)?
That may be a silly question coming from an engineer but sometimes I feel uneasy when my expectations (based on experience) and actual model/analysis results are pretty different.






RE: What do you guys do when?
Never ever take the results as true once you belly says there might be something wrong...
RE: What do you guys do when?
Agreed.
Some words of advice from early in my career that I always remember:
Before you submit any work to the next stage, always ask yourself, are you happy with it?
Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services
http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/
RE: What do you guys do when?
There have been many times when my calculated answer has been wrong, whereas i felt it was right.
During those situations, i make it a point to read and re-read the question and estimate a rough answer.
If the answer falls somewhere in between then it is ok, if it does not then i have to either leave it or rework on it.
thanks
Essay writing Toronto
RE: What do you guys do when?
Then you need to take a deep breath and really go through in minute details all the inputs, data and how the particular item was calculated and INPUT INTO the SOFTWARE.
Question every link, data source, value from some other location.
Occasionally you will get it wrong, but more times you find the error.
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: What do you guys do when?
RE: What do you guys do when?
but if i get the unexpected answer again? I will either ask a colleague to confirm it or put a big 'Review' post-it on it to check once again completely fresh for the final time and then accept it.
RE: What do you guys do when?
However, when I have free time, I try to examine why my gut might be giving me different results from my calculations. The goal being to better understand where my intuition is coming from and to better understand when and where it might not be as accurate as I think it is.
RE: What do you guys do when?
If the result still "smells wrong" then peer-check it.
Also, pass it through your boss informally - "This calculation doesn't seem right, would you look at it and let me know what I may have overlooked before we release it. "
RE: What do you guys do when?
Option 2: Peer review. After this, hopefully I understand the discrepancy.
I will not do the following: "...do you also take into account/consider your intuition and make things lil bigger regardless (to be on a safe side)?" What if my intuition leads me to bump it up 30%, but the calculations were unsafe by 100%? With this approach, I presumably do not know what was wrong with my calculations or the method.
RE: What do you guys do when?
When I design something, I like the finished product to look right. It gives confidence to the builder and the final user.
RE: What do you guys do when?
I will always remember his comment on the matter. " The mistake is ALWAYS in the part that you KNOW is correct. ", A not too subtle way of saying check everything.
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.