Quote:
Originally Posted by Glee17
This was an undergraduate senior project, not a sponsored grad student research project. This college allows students after 3 years of theory to perform a hands on project from start to finish. The students create a test procedure, perform tests, interpret data, re-perform tests, write a report, then present their findings to their peers. None of their results need to be correct, it is really a full immersion method to learn the process they may have to do in the real world.
The majority of people in the world (including student engineers) have no idea what is aerodynamic or not. By performing testing that helps reinforce the aerodynamic concepts known to people here, that aerodynamic knowledge may be passed on to others who don't subscribe to the Pop. Sci. way of thinking.
Geoff
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Geoff,I apologize if my comments came off as a personal attack,that was not my intent.What frustrates me is that there is a firmly established body of knowledge which has undergone independent,empirical verification at one of the world's most renowned wind-tunnel facilities,and it appears to pass without notice.Its as if PhDs are standing around arguing about how to design a manual typewriter,when laptop computer and word-processing technology exists.If working through a complete exercise, as was done by the students, was the premise of the education,well then they succeeded.If they published their work to push the state-of-the-art in pickup truck drag reduction,what am I or anyone else to think,when all this work was already accomplished in the 1980s and no mention of it made.It's like digging the same hole over and over again.And shouldn't students embarking on a project(any project) check their environment to see what has already been accomplished,and expand beyond level of intellectual achievement? Sorry,I'm probably to "close" to these issues,as I see ramifications of folly rippling out throughout the globe.