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From: The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2024 10:51:23 +0000
Organization: A little, after lunch
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On 15/12/2024 04:57, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
> "seems close enough"
>    is NOT good enough. Planes, spacecraft, bridges, huge
>    buildings, medical implants - GOTTA refine with the
>    hard-core/hard-math tools.

I think you would be aghast at how "seems good enough" guides most 
engineering design.

No-one accurately measures every single component that goes into a design.

At best they do a full test on the final product.

There is always room for the black swan unit where all the tolerances 
were exactly the wrong way.

In general it is cheaper to simply scrap that one, or if it escapes into 
the wild, give the customer a replacement.

The development algorithm of the racing Cosworth V8 was "remove metal 
till it breaks, then put that bit back again".

And we can only calculate what we thought of. Some failure modes are 
completely unexpected.

Some of the most durable civil engineering was done by Victorian 
engineers who were not able to do the calculations. Their conservative 
over-enginering resulted in structures that stand good even to day.

Admittedly their failures are long gone :-( (Tay bridge, any one?)

-- 
"The great thing about Glasgow is that if there's a nuclear attack it'll 
look exactly the same afterwards."

Billy Connolly