Quantification

Seeking Veracity

 greytrek.com

baut0@greytrek.com
   
 

The objective of this section is to explore the importance of being quantitative when exploring and developing ideas.  Frequently,  speeches are given and books are written that without putting numbers on the terms that are discussed.   Liberal Arts majors in college will tend to communicate in a qualitative way, whereas Engineering students will be required to use quantitative descriptions.  Of course, certain subjects are very difficult to quantify . . . human feelings and emotions, for example.  But the physical world can be described using characteristics as well as numbers.

We'll be adding various ideas in the future, but here's a perfect example.  How about heating cold water with warm water.  Of course this requires the knowledge materials, physical properties and heat transfer technology to talk about this in a quantitative way.  And further, it takes some engineering skill to present exactly how it works using numbers.  It seems to me that it's a real "upgrade" to talk about warming water quantitatively while discussing how warm it feels, or if it burned, and how hot it was.   The description will varied from person to person but if it is quantified, the answers are not degraded when being shared by many people.

Okay . . . enough of the preliminaries.  Click on the link below and you will see how a double pipe heat exchanger works.  You can make inputs, see the temperature output and profile and calculate some of the important things that are associated with the process.  Just try different inputs (red) and hit the Calculate Button.  And remember, for best viewing results, you might want to make adjustments to your monitor.
   

Heat Exchanger
  
Now here's another "quantification" example from engineering.  It's an incompressible fluid flow study for Newtonian as well as Yield Stress Fluids.  
  

Fluid Flow
  
The banking system in the USA and really World-wide uses a system that makes loans but in the rare case does not have sufficient funds available should all depositors want their money back simultaneously.  This system does not appear to create money and is supposed to stimulate an economy by encouraging commerce through borrowing.  But be careful . . . IT DOES CREATE "DEBT MONEY" every time a loan is made by a bank using "on demand" account funds in the fractional reserve banking system.  Take a look at this model, and try some what-if inputs to study the dynamics.  Some think it is a "Wall Street Ponzi Scheme".
  
The Fractional Reserve Lending System
  
Now we add a little reality to the previous Fractional Reserve spreadsheet by including Open Market Operations of the Federal Reserve Bank (The FED), the Federal Deficit, and how the FED Monetizes the Money Supply.  Monetization is really government sanctioned counterfeiting.  But of course, this is very simplistic and only for study.  
  
FED Control over U.S. Money and Debt, the Deficit and The Money Supply

 

Preceding                                    Home                                           Next