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



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.