Re: Simulation vs. Experimentation (was: Capacitor Help)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Mddeming@xxxxxxx 

In a message dated 12/16/05 11:30:44 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
"  I
can't see any reason for a beginner to use anything more than
Wheeler's and Medhurst's approximations and a pencil and paper for an
initial design of a beginner's system. "


Hi Ed,

I agree that's all that one really needs and has needed for decades, 
and older newbies can appreciate it. However, I think you'll find 
that many of the under 30 crowd couldn't work out anything with a 
pencil and paper except maybe a booger from their nose. :^~((
 I worked with pipeline flow simulators for the last 9 years before 
retirement. When I left, I was the only one in the department who 
could calculate pressure drop or orifice meter flow from basic 
formulas. My youngest grandson (age 8) is in the top 10% of his 
class, a master of web surfing, and champ at video games, but still 
counts on his fingers when he doesn't have a calculator, and can't 
read without moving his lips.
If you understand what a program is doing and why, then it is a tool 
of great convenience, but I'm not sure how building something by 
carefully following the specs spit out from a program is any 
different from just putting together a kit, or doing a 
"paint-by-number picture". Maybe for many people, that's enough though.

Matt D.