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Torsion and Flexure

Torsion and Flexure A SERIOUS difficulty in engineering is the bridging of the stream between the mathematician and the engineer. They have been from the start, to a large extent, on opposite sides, for whereas the mathematician is wholly a rationalist, the engineer is largely an empiricist. This empiricism of the engineer is not due to any innate dislike of reason, but rather to the inadequacy of reason to forecast experimental facts. In general, facts are discovered and are then shown to be rational but once the reason underlying a known fact is produced, it furnishes a means of prediction in matters far beyond existing experience. The inability of the mathematician to produce a design technique as soon as it is required has led to some disparagement by the engineer, so that some engineers scorn to use any but the simplest formula and base their design almost entirely on experience, even when adequate mathematical treatment is available. Others, who have little time for mathematical study, hesitate to use the results of the mathematical theory of elasticity because of their ignorance of the derivation of a formul and the consequent danger of misapplying it. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

Torsion and Flexure

Gurney, C.
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , Volume 11 (12): 4 – Dec 1, 1939
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb030577
Publisher site
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Abstract

A SERIOUS difficulty in engineering is the bridging of the stream between the mathematician and the engineer. They have been from the start, to a large extent, on opposite sides, for whereas the mathematician is wholly a rationalist, the engineer is largely an empiricist. This empiricism of the engineer is not due to any innate dislike of reason, but rather to the inadequacy of reason to forecast experimental facts. In general, facts are discovered and are then shown to be rational but once the reason underlying a known fact is produced, it furnishes a means of prediction in matters far beyond existing experience. The inability of the mathematician to produce a design technique as soon as it is required has led to some disparagement by the engineer, so that some engineers scorn to use any but the simplest formula and base their design almost entirely on experience, even when adequate mathematical treatment is available. Others, who have little time for mathematical study, hesitate to use the results of the mathematical theory of elasticity because of their ignorance of the derivation of a formul and the consequent danger of misapplying it.

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing

Published: Dec 1, 1939

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