Slashdot Mirror
Tracking the Cracks
Roland Piquepaille writes "Israeli physicists from the Weizmann Institute have used a new approach to study how materials break. In a short news release, brilliantly titled "Breaking news", they explain their new method for analyzing the progression of a forming crack. The news release even says that it could have help engineers predict 'exactly how much pressure the levees protecting New Orleans could withstand before giving way.' This method could be used by engineers and material scientists in a vast variety of applications."
So your saying that you don't mind if the walls of your home are 2m thick? That's about an order of magnitude. What about if speed limits were 10km/h? That would be an order of magnitude better, wouldn't it? And you know those pipes in the basement you live in? We should make sure that they are at least 3cm thick, just to be on the safe side. That would make them, what, 7cm diamter copper pipes? Cheap as hell, oh yeah.
In other words, go and get yourself a glass of STFU.
Oh, and if your wondering, a sustained 20-30% past the maximum limit is pretty standard. But these values vary widly with due consideration to impulses, redundancy, complexity, and other operating conditions.
Sig