Re: gEDA-user: [OFF] high current amplifier

[Joerg <joergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Doty wrote:
> On May 20, 2009, at 2:36 PM, der Mouse wrote:
> 
>>>> A ton of cooling is 12 Kbtu, about the heat of crystallization of
>>>> one ton of water, per hour.
>>>>> Why do engineers use so many whacky units?
>>>> [...], tradition and convenience.
>>> Good excuses for the masses.  Not so good for engineering, which
>>> depends on precise communication.
>> Which measuring air conditioning capacities in tons provides.  Just
>> because it's disorienting to those who are acquainted with only other
>> meanings of the word doesn't make it any less precise.
> 
> It's poor communication. Specialized jargon. Language should  
> illuminate the issue to the widest possible audience. But here, even  
> to specialists, the language obfuscates, since using the same units  
> for heat and electrical energy would reveal the thermodynamic  
> efficiency of the technology.
> 

Depends on who you are dealing with. When I spec'd out a catheter 
manufacturing plant the construction guys as well as the architact 
looked at me with wrinkled foreheads when I started with kilowatts. "So 
what size unit goes where, then?" ... "Well, two five-ton units over 
here and we'll need another one over yonder." ... "Ah, ok, I think we 
can work that into the budget."

Same in other professions. Taking it back four inches doesn't mean 
altitude in an aircraft ;-)

-- 
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/



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