Friday, October 15, 2010

NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS.

addition to the name and the date, all calculations shouldaccompanied by a complete record of the object and purpose
of
the calculation, the apparatus, the assumptions made, the
data
used, reference to other calculations or data employed,
etc.,
to
in short, they should include all the information requiredmake the calculation intelligible to another engineer without
further
information besides that contained in the calculations,
or in the references
given therein. The small amount of time
and
increased
work required to do this is negligible compared with theutility of the calculation.
Tables
and curves belonging to the calculation should in
the
same way be completely identified with it and contain
sufficient
data to be intelligible.
d.
167.
Reliability of Numerical Calculations.The most important and essential requirement of
numerical
engineering calculations is their absolute reliability.
When
making a calculation, the most brilliant ability, theoretical
knowledge and
practical experience of an engineer are
made
useless, and even worse than useless, by a single error in
an
important calculation.
Reliability
of the numerical calculation is of vastly greater
importance
in engineering than in any other field. In pure
mathematics
example which
an error in the numerical calculation of anillustrates a general proposition, does not detract
from the
interest and value of the latter, which is the main
purpose; in physics, the general
the'
law which is the subject ofinvestigation remains true, and the investigation of interest
and
use, even if in the numerical illustration of the law an
error
is made. With the most brilliant engineering design,
however,
if in the numerical calculation of a single structural
member
an error has been made, and its strength thereby calculated
wrong,
the rotor of the machine flies to pieces by centrifugal
forces,
engineer.
or the bridge collapses, and with it the reputation of theThe essential difference between engineering and
purely
scientific caclulations is the rapid check on the correctnessof the calculation, which is usually afforded by the per
In
be

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