The Glade 4.0

one could argue its the teacher's fault.

To paraphrase Niven:
The majority is never insane.

Education is not a democracy. Also, the majority can be lazy, ignorant, unintellegent, or mal-informed. None of these things require insanity as a prerequisite.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

We are talking about a measureable achievement. You can't be wrong if you follow it. Curves are the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. I know engineers who have scored 10/30 and gotten an A on an exam. I flat out told them I don't want to drive over a bridge they built.

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Yes, of course, it's always the teacher's fault. I get to deal with this mindset all of the time. I have an option for it, too. It's been exercised once or twice. I give the course materials to the parents (or student if they're particularly enterprising). I give them the phone number to our on-campus tutoring facilities and our tutoring network (regional). And I offer to give them an incomplete provided they will take complete the work, with a tutor, satisfactory to pass. If they do complete the work, their incomplete is replaced with the grade of the new work minus one letter grade.

And, guess what, it's aberrational ANY of them actually take me up on it, because 90% of the students I fail failed because they didn't even attempt to do the work required.

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Presumably you're also giving lecture on the coursework as well, right?

Not after they've already failed the class. The above is his offer to people disputing his failing marks, not his course itself.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

They've already been through my lectures at this point. Of course, since all but one class on my regular teaching schedule is a seminar ...

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I've also been told that it's not uncommon in engineering cirricula to design the test to be that hard, where a score under 50% is what's expected for someone who has learned satisfactorily

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I'd still say that's a problem, they are doing mathematics. This is not a subjective topic like Business Strategy.

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They are doing math, but they're not always doing it with all the information. Engineers have to apply science to the real world, and sometimes it is even a little subjective. I just finished my "hasty bridge evaluation" module. It tells you to go measure all kinds of stuff and do all kinds of math before you try to drive tanks over some Third World Shithole bridge... but it includes the caveat that it's for bridges without "significant deterioration". When exactly is it "significant"? I guess I'll know it when I see it.

Not only that, but if it were just "ability to do math" we wouldn't need engineers, just math majors, nor would experience or advanced engineering degrees be relevant.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I get what you are saying about real-world applications of engineering. But my understanding is that specialized engineering (other than software which really isn't) just means you special in certain calculations such as materials, aerodynamics, stresses, etc. No?

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It's also about knowing what calculations to make and what assumptions to make in doing them. The real world will test your design in ways that neither you nor your customer (who gives you specifications) can anticipate.

That's why there's not One Right Answer to engineering questions. For example, compare the F-35 to the X-32 it competed against for the Joint Strike Fighter contract. Both airplanes would work but niehter is exactly the same as the other, although they are generally comparable. You couldn't figure out which one is better by just doing calculations though; you need to build them and test them.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

[Minor Derail]The F-35 JSF sucks[/Minor Derail Off]

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That's not why curves are bad. A test could be hard enough that 30% deserves an A, provided of course that everyone who scores 30% gets the same A. Forcing your grades to fit a curve means X% of the students are going to pass and Y% are going to fail, regardless of the quality of their work. It also encourages your students to sabotage each other instead of actually learning, because you can make yourself pass by causing someone else to fail.

A test could be hard enough that anything > 0 is impossible so I don't see what the comparison is?

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Its not *bad*.

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Holy shitsnacks!

I would have loved you for my teacher >.<

We have a stupid rule where you need to get 50%+ on your written final to pass (which accounts for 50% of the course's final score), so even if I get a credit score (65%) over all, technically I can still fail. This happened once and it totally sucked.

In other news, I ace open book tests, I just fail at remembering names of stuff >.<

No it doesn't. It's a perfectly good airplane. It's not as good as the F-22 in the air superiority role, but as a practical matter it equals or exceeds the best its likely to fight any time soon such as the J-10, J-11/Su-27, Su-30/33/35 family, or possibly Gripens depending on who lays hands on them. It's not likely to find itself fighting Super Hornets, and I don't think Rafales or Eurofighters are all that probable either.

On the other hand I'll be a bit worried when the PAK-FA really gets going

The way the procurement has been managed recently, on the other hand, does suck.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Say what you will about the Russkies... they sure can build a beautiful plane.

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Holy shitsnacks!

In terms of looks, there haven't been too many ugly Russian ones. The Yak-38 is nothing to write home about nor is the MiG-21, but a lot of the other ones are definite winners in the cosmetics category.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Most professors give a great amount of leniency to students who do all their homework and projects, regardless of their exam grades. If you do all your work, you pretty much need to be at the bottom of the curve on every exam to fail. And of course the students who don't do their work typically score less than you on exams... so in essence, curves aren't bad.

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"The map is not the territory."

It's also getting close to the same price as the F22 now

DE:

The JSF still sucks. I can't remember where I read it, but it's particularly susceptible to older forms of radar and performed horribly in actual combat testing.

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An engineering specialty is much like a medical specialty. Both must have a general understanding of the field, common throughout all disciplines, and then build a specialty on top of that.

I was an engineering major and a mathmatics major. Very different fields. Math is and will always be. There is nothing subjective about mathematics. Math is defineable, answerable, and that answer is right or it is wrong. The study of mathematics has little to do with calculations, and everything to do with understanding the relationship of numbers.

Engineering is a beautiful mix of qualitiative and quantitative knowledge. It can be very subjective. It is the study of real world practical problem solving. Any engineer can perform a calculation, but can he determine what calculation to make? Can he make the right assumptions to simplify the calculations and still give him a workable solution? Does he know how accurate his answer needs to be?

Engineering tests typically provide an abundance of information, some you need, some you don't, and the engineer must decide how to use some or all of that data to find a practical solution. There is no one "correct answer", but there are lots of wrong ones. And yes, some can be more wrong than others.

Mathematics is much, much easier than engineering.

You must be referring to the RAND computer simulation wherein a large number of Chinese aircraft defeated a small number of F-35s by preventing ariel refueling in the Taiwan straits. They did this by skirting the fighters and attacking their tankers.

The problem with using this as a cricticism is that A) it doesn't directly address the issue of "how does the plane perform" but rather attacks it indirectly by pointing out a weakness of the small numbers mandated by high cost, and B) ignores the fact that any fighter aircraft that has to fly a long way to get to a battle area will have a disadvantage compared to one that is based close by.

It should also be pointed out that RAND itself disavowed the critical comments directed at the F-35as not approved for public release and not peer-reviewed.



A great deal of the cricticism of the F-35 has basically resulted from Australian internal politics, namely attempting to take the RAND comments and run with them, especially by Liberal MPs, even after they were disavowed.

As for the stealth issue, it is quite true that, from the rear, the F-35 is not very stealthy and is less stealthy than an F-22. However, it is still a relatively stealthy aircraft compared to its peers, or compared to previous fighters.

My biggest concern with the F-35 is its (apparent) inability to carry a B61 as it stands now.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."