In engineering, students learn mathematical techniques for designing systems, among other things, such as language skills and laboratory procedure, so they can be proficiently astute to qualify for employment at engineering firms which are often contracted by the government sometimes for contracts worth tens of billions of dollars to design a system or vehicle. This is done on "paper" first, utilizing computers mainly, perhaps produce some small scale models (if aerodynamic data is required when computational methods aren't satisfactory), then they build a prototype, flight test it, and work the "bugs" out. When the vehicle is ready, it is usually compared with the product of a rival firm who was tasked with meeting the same design criteria. The products are compared, a decision is made, and an order is placed by the government for 100-200 or so of these vehicles to be delivered over the space of a decade or two for around $140 million per unit.
They do not build a prototype, fail, build another, fail and keep iterating this irrationally expensive process until they get it right. There are much smarter ways of designing costly systems than the tried and true backwoods method of trial and error.
My mother had a dog once that used trial and error to find the center of gravity of a plumber's plunger while carried in his mouth, his mouth of course only inches away from the rubber plunger. My mother, bless her heart, was a farm girl from a foreign country, and she said "look how smart he is!" Saying nothing, I thought, "mom, he has the business end of a toilet plunger in his mouth." :laughing:
Scientists take the time and trouble to develop the mathematical tools for engineers, so they can have the tools to build these expensive systems on paper first. Once the tool is developed, it is tested and confirmed by peer review by likewise intelligent scientists. These sophisticated shortcuts save people a lot of time and trouble and render the design process much easier, quicker and less costly. This process was demonstrated to members here (in a layman sort of way) for the mathematical tool that governs determining throw for a flashlight with an aspheric lens, right here at CPF.
Of course our pocket books are much smaller than the government's, and certain people might prefer not to accumulate a $1000-2000 arsenal of flashlights in an expensive trial and error process.
I am developing a mathematical tool that can be adapted to most eyes and most targets, so that when you get a hankering for a flashlight, you can use the tool to determine the spec of a flashlight that will meet your visual and targeting needs without having to procure a flashlight hobbyist's arsenal of expensive flashlights and then not be able to send your son or daughter to college so he/she can become as smart as a certain handsome, sophisticated, worldy sort of fellow contributing to this forum.
I realize this procedure is unfamiliar to some people. It might even feel intimidating and rub these persons' grain the wrong way, even to the point of eliciting a narcissistically snubbing and dismissive response. Or, one might be hard pressed to seek some kind of self-validation for they way
they approach the selection process for a flashlight, and thinking one did not obtain it, might lash out in fear at the thing or person he doesn't understand.
I am an engineer with a high level of mathematical expertise. What I have been doing is the job of a scientist developing a tool that I will ultimately use to design and fulfill my flashlight needs. If others are lucky, they will stumble across my tool and save themselves a lot of money and hassle choosing a flashlight. Provided firstly, that those with validation natured issues don't disrupt the forum with their kamikaze technique for flaming the thread and sinking it by moving moderators to lock it before it is completed.
If anyone has such issues, and either feels the need to snobbishly dismiss this
strange, alien approach or at least obtain validation before able to return the favor and validate me or it, this is not the place to work out or vent these turbulent, unpleasant emotions. This thread is about flashlights. It is not about psychology or spirituality or your personal emotional needs. Please find a support group and get a group hug. :grouphug:
If you wish to vent pent up emotions, perhaps you could find the comment section of a Trump news story. He seems to be the popular beating post now. Enjoy.
If you have an expensive smartphone with GPS and monthly service contract and prefer to use it for backwoods navigation, trying to talk me into doing that is beside the point of this thread. I have patiently explained to one such person why that is not going to work for me.
If you use maps and a compass in high winds on mountain ridges, feel free to rip your map to shreds.
If you buy a $1000-2000 arsenal of flashlights and try them out one at a time to select what works best for you, that's your hobby, not mine.
If you think I'm having a midlife crisis, perhaps you can use your psychiatry doctorate to prescribe me the appropriate meds. I obviously need some help.
If this thread is unpleasant for you or is hopelessly irrelevant in your opinion :thinking::shrug:, I might offer that you spare yourself the click and do something you find more interesting or satisfying.
This thread's purpose is not here for validating people or recognizing different approaches. It is not about "you" or "me" or "them" and the ways people prefer to do things or how they have fun.
And this comment is not here to start a tangential discussion about this point and such issues.
It is here to end them. Such discussions are
certainly irrelevant and off topic in this thread, and I hope
that will finally be "understood" by those to whom it pertains.
