software?

From: <Conner>
Date: Fri Feb 17 2006 - 17:27:00 EST

Some rambling thoughts for after work hours Friday! I guess it is possible this basic subject has probably been discussed ad nauseam on this and other lists (though the recent other posts on spreadsheets and software/talking about hand calcs and "Roark's etc. caused me to pull these thoughts back out) Software is great, and there sure is a lot of it now out there!

         I happened to see not long ago on another engineering list that a (I suspect young) person was given an assignment by an instructor to determine the weight of an empty pipe. I saw later, that with the aid of a computer "spreadsheet" (eventually provided by a cyber friend?), they apparently were able to make this determination as required, though it appeared this process took a couple days from the original inquiry. To be honest with you, I guess reflecting on my teaching/upbringing in another era, if I was e.g. given an assignment to determine one-time the weight in air of an empty , non-standard (to me at the time) diameter of a particular piping material, I would not necessarily be thinking of "software" to solve that problem; instead, I would be thinking about what makes "weight" (i.e. the product of the volume of mat(ter)erial involved and a weight force per unit volume or density of that material), and then I would be using principles of solid geometry/mensuration I learned at an earlier age to determine the volume of material in the pipe cylinder to complete the equation.

         This exercise and how it was now handled got me to wondering what might happen to some folks of a younger generation if (when?) the power ever went off? Some old Road Warriors might be able to solve the immediate post-Apocalypse problems with a pencil and paper, charcoal and a cave wall, or maybe even with no more moving parts than the few neurons we've got left and a finger drawing in the sand (that's assuming we can remember or locate the formulae/books etc. required). From listening to recent accounts of others recently on the list and I must admit a little of my own experience this may probably by that time take crawling down on our hands and knees amidst our collective office hard-copy books/paper messes, and with maybe a little larger magnifying glass and with a little more drool than we do now?)

         I did however happen to notice that there is a very interesting recent article in Feb. 2006 "Civil Engineering" magazine entitled, "Ethically Understanding the Role of Computer Software in Engineering Calculation", that indicates the basic problems in some cases may be a little deeper or require more attention now (than an old engineer just wondering what would happen when the power goes off?) The question now proposed by this article is, "is it ethical to use computer software to solve a problem if you cannot complete the calculations manually?" Randy Conner - ACIPCO

-----Original Message-----
From: PipingDesign@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:PipingDesign@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Paul Bowers Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 8:19 AM
To: PipingDesign@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [PipingDesign] Pipe Geometry LRE offsets

We used to call this run, set and travel. It used math and that was difficult, so they made software.

A few years ago I had linked a site called _AJ's Offset Page_ (tell him I sent you), which was quite nice. You can still find it if you Google hard enough for it. (I could crack his site, but he apparently wants to keep it difficult to use and I respect his choice)

Unless I'm mistaken, Ben's PipingOffice software also has something on this.

Paul

Conner, Randy wrote:
> As you like/ala kayfak (thought maybe at least a little basic geometry and
even a few other things might work even way down there!) There is a brief discussion of some layout info in M11, including combined plan and profile deflection.
> Randy Conner- ACIPCO

   >

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