Look, I’m no engineer or nucular fizzisist by any stretch of the imagination. However, I have always had a soft spot for science and love to get into the nitty gritty of whatever I can. Truth be told, though, I don’t always understand the math since it’s not something I study on a daily basis. So often, when I read a science report, I simply have to take on faith that the equations work and that the people producing the numbers know what they are doing. Science is a wonderful, fantastic thing humans have concocted over the years, but since there is no way I can learn every detail of every statement, quite often I just have to….. forgive me…. simply believe.
For example, my new tires I just purchased were filled with Nitrogen. No charge, but normally $4 a tire if you just go in to get them filled. I did some light research, culled out any sites that sold N2 as hype-induced advertisement, and the general rule of thumb was that N2 was a larger molecule it wouldn’t leak out as fast therefore extending the life of my tires for many, many miles. Also no water vapor would prevent rotting of the tires from the inside. What a great deal!!!
Looks like I was wrong.
N2 is larger, but lighter and therefore could actually leak out faster. And ummm, water vapor is a gas, not a liquid so pressure changes due to temperature is not something the typical driver has to worry about. Third, and the fact that I totally failed to think about this embarrasses me – air is 70% N2 anyway.
Sigh. I wish I could peer into the mysteries of the universe and understand it all, but alas, I have a job where that kind of research just isn’t pertinent to my work. I’m not stupid. In fact, I’m rather bright: Don’t let my grammatically error prone ramblings fool you. I didn’t get the job of Aviation Electrician working on multimillion dollar fighter aircraft for the Marines being dense (well….. at least not when it came to numbers). But to see I’ve been ‘had’ is depressing, especially when consider that most people won’t do more research than the brouchure they’re given and that the ‘having’ will go on.
At least I can make beer…..
rolled out on
Monday, November 28, 2005 3:52 PM