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Cement Shoes

Cement Shoes

Cement Shoes

(OP)
A long-running peeve of mine is people using cement when concrete is meant.  My wife does it to this day, though I have long since stopped correcting her (homefront security issues).

Join me in ridding the world of the lamentable misuse of cement.

RE: Cement Shoes

Good luck with the good fight.  I would guess that it is a rare eng-tips member who messes that one up, the folks that do ain't here.

David

RE: Cement Shoes

I have the same problem. Why do they call cement trucks that? They should be concrete trucks!

RE: Cement Shoes

I think they're more correctly "transit-mix" trucks.

RE: Cement Shoes

sounds good to me

RE: Cement Shoes

Hey, I am glad to see this thread back, and in a good forum for it.  It should go far.

As a ME who has had some real knots pounded on my head by Civil Engineers, I have learned that cement/concrete is not the only burr under the saddle of civils.

What about the difference between "soil" and "dirt".  (As a ME, it all looks like dirt to me.)

What about beam and column?  As long as it holds the load up, I don't care what it is called, but the Civils around me sure do.

It is kind of like cussing in front of one's mother.  (not permitted in my generation) I can say the correct terms when in the presence of Civils to keep from riling them up, but when I get back into my subculture of ME's, it is cement, dirt, and everything is a beam, some of them are just vertical.

As for wives, mine drives me nuts when she insists on referring to pulling the "string" to start the lawn mower, and not the "rope."  How crass, but for any woman who will mow the lawn you do not hear me complaining to her about her terminology.  When the starting is hard, I go out and pull the "string" for her.

rmw

RE: Cement Shoes

(OP)
I don't have a problem with beams/columns, as long as we agree that ducts and chases are interchangeable as well.  

RE: Cement Shoes

Beams- horizontal...columns- vertical

cup half full- when pouring
cup half empty- while drinking


there is always a reason behind the words.

RE: Cement Shoes

cup "twice as big as it needs to be" - when poking fun at engineers.

RE: Cement Shoes

Talking about the trucks, they are "ready mix trucks"

RE: Cement Shoes

rmw

I assume from your tone, you are not one of the mechanical engineers who gets their knickers in a twist about the difference between screws and bolts (which got a thread all of its own)? What about motors and engines? (Just teasing!)

As a structural / civil engineer, my quick definitions are:

A beam is an element which predominantly carries transverse loads by bending and shear; most commonly a horizontal or near-horizontal member.

A column is an element that carries loads predominately in axial compression; most commonly a vertical member.

A beam-column carries its loads by a combination of bending and axial behaviour.

RE: Cement Shoes

I have done the motor and engine debate, from both sides, and I can no longer remember which one is which.  You nailed it on the bolts and screws issue.  Doesn't too much matter to me.  I use 'em both a lot.  I did read the thread about it with interest.

But, I almost got a headache reading your explanation of the beam/column difference.  I had forgotten I knew some of those words.  Too much information.  I do know enough to keep myself from getting laughed at when working on a project that requires structural discussions.  Some of those fancy heat exchangers I work on rest on beams supported by columns buried in the (was it cement, or concrete?)

To add fuel to the discussion, what about someone who has a pump that won't pump enough pressure, (when they mean volume, which means that the pressure is falling off.)

rmw

RE: Cement Shoes

you can't leave us electricals out of it - how about "ac current" or worst "ac volts".

Bung
Life is non-linear...

RE: Cement Shoes

Whenever I hear "cement", I just can not avoid a wild burst of laugher. My friend's son came home from school after having his new-found knowledge of reproduction system and told his father that reproduction required cement of the father and egg of the mother to make a child.

Off topic, but could not resist dropping it here.

RE: Cement Shoes

How about the old ones of construct and build and cast and pour.

I was always told that houses are built but engineers construct.

Concrete is cast but water is poured.


Or is that too pendantic?

Stephen A

RE: Cement Shoes

(OP)
I don't think too pedantic, just a matter of preference and comfort in usage.

The typical usage for placing concrete in my part of the country (SE) is pour.  Also used as a noun (We have a pour scheduled this afternoon).  

My first thought when hearing cast is fishing, as in casting a line.  Cast is used around here when referring to concrete that is to be differentiated from precast: cast in place. But I have seen poured in place as well.  

Are you suggesting that only a pure liquid can be poured?  An interesting question.  Is it the substance that is being poured that defines "pouring" or the flowing of the  substance?  I tend to think the latter.

RE: Cement Shoes

If you're an engineer, concrete is placed.  If you're the contractor, it poured (especially if the slump if left up to them).  Maybe since they're the ones actually doing the work, they can call it whatever they want.

And for rmw, it's all dirt unless you're a geotechnical engineer or need it to support your foundation.

Regards.

RE: Cement Shoes

In Georgia, i was, for a while after college, the mud man for my uncle building houses.

Mud = mortar or cement.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: Cement Shoes

(OP)
Did you carry your mud in a hod?  

I was driving by a jobsite one day with a co-worker who used to lay brick.  He said, after we drove by, that there was a "hog in that wall," meaning that it was bowed out of plane.  I looked it up later and one of the informal meanings was, to cause the back to arch like that of a hog, or some such.  

Masons have a rich vocabulary.

RE: Cement Shoes

I occasionally email the local TV stations and ask them to tell the reporters that "cement is to concrete as flour is to bread". (An ingredient). It is a waste of effort, as they probably can't read, or don't care, or don't understand.

In my area, if concrete is to be poured, the concrete is no good-contains too much water. "Placing concrete" is preferred.

Buy a dictionary, keep it nearby and USE it. Webster's New World Dictionary of American English is recommended, and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

RE: Cement Shoes

ml13,
The hull of a ship sags between waves and hogs over a wave. I believe that is because it is like a hog going over a fence.

jeff

RE: Cement Shoes

ok from the Metallurgy side of things:

Melts can be poured. Every thing is cast once even if its wrought. (or forged).

Steel comes in coils, toilet paper comes in rolls.

iron is not steel; steel is not iron

All metals are crystals already. (cept the newfangled amorphous alloys)

Metals dont have molecules.


Nick
I love materials science!

RE: Cement Shoes

Quote (NickE):

Metals dont have molecules.
Then what do they have?

RE: Cement Shoes

CajunCenturion,

In decreasing structure size, metals have:

bulk > crystals > atoms > protons + neutrons + electrons > quarks (for protons and neutrons only)

Regards,

Cory

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: Cement Shoes

Most metals, alloys included are technically mixtures of metal crystals as opposed to a true compound with molecular stoichiometry.

TTFN

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