scott wrote:
>> My point being "what happens if the model says force X is the largest 
>> that's ever likely to occur, but it turns out the model is wrong and 
>> actually force 12X is fairly common"...
> 
> For most things there are "standard models" that are used, and have been 
> tried and tested for decades.  You *must* use these, by law.  Of course 
> for weird things that aren't covered in law, you are free to make your 
> own design decisions.  If you design something to withstand X, and 12X 
> is "fairly common" you're going to be in *big* trouble when people are 
> injured.
> 
>> Presumably that's a pretty bad thing?
> 
> Yes.  You could end up responsible for lots of people dying and face the 
> consequences.
> 
> It's why we have such things as "Chartered Engineers", who have 
> demonstrated competence in industry and not just graduated from any old 
> university with a degree in structural Engineering.  Most structural 
> Engineering firms will not employ any non-chartered Engineers to do 
> anything important.

My point was that the standard wave model says that "12X happens once 
every few millennia", but now it turns out that actually it happens 
somewhere on Earth once every few weeks - and that's kind of worrying...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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