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Old 12th Jul 2010, 21:18
  #105 (permalink)  
Mr Optimistic
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Bedford, UK
Age: 70
Posts: 1,319
Received 24 Likes on 13 Posts
well nearly everything in engineering is an inexact solution

....because when a concept is good enough we stop looking and accept it. When better precision comes around we have to challenge the accepted models (eg GPS and location on the ground and the representation of this on a map projection). When the basics of physics trip up, we just invent a new concept and if it works accept it into the family (eg em waves having momentum and all those new quantum numbers they keep inventing). Science presents a model of the world, not the world itself. Engineering takes one more step back.
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