letters...
David R. Taylor
Fort Calhoun, Neb.
However, at one point the article diverges to state, "The fact that the tiny biological motors [referring to bacterial flagella] are the only natural objects that generate rotary motion suggests that evolution may have selected rotary motion at nanoscales due to its efficiency."
This statement is purely philosophical, and argues more convincingly that bacteria's flagella are evidence of intelligent design rather than a random, undirected process of evolution.
As engineers, we are intelligent and educated enough to recognize the boundary between objective science and philosophical speculation. Unless we wish to expand our forum of engineering dialogue into philosophical debate, perhaps we should confine our discussion to sound, observable, test-able, technical information.
Wm. F. (Fred) Fulcher, P.E.
Pine Knoll Shores, N.C.
To the Editor: While the American government has given away more
money and resources (with taxes paid by Americans) than any country in
history, our free enterprise system is the model (if not the envy) of
the rest of the world. With it, we have provided more financial assistance,
exported more technology, provided more employment to foreign nationals
in their respective countries of origin and have started more business
and manufacturing programs in those countries than any other nation in
the entire world, while still consuming France's wine and cheeses
and Egypt's cotton.
Thus, if Sherif Samy Shenouda wishes to be critical (Letters, August 2001),
he should look at the price of energy in his and any other country. He
would discover that governmental taxation is the root of the problem,
not America's gluttony for energy. I've purchased gasoline
at $3 to $5 per gallon in a foreign country for my foreign rental car
having a 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder high-efficiency engine, as prescribed by
Shenouda, and upon arriving home stopped by the American gas station and
filled up my 3.38-liter, 6-cylinder American auto for $1.30 per gallon
because of less tax and less government interference with the free market
in our private enterprise system.
Sorry, Mr. Shenouda (and President Chirac), you're both barking
up the wrong tree. It's not America's fault; the problem
lies in both your own back yards with your respective governments.
Editor's note: The letter written by Sherif Samy Shenouda referred to the Washington Window column published in January 2001, reporting on a failure to reach an international agreement on the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
West Bloomfield Township, Mich.
While big engines may develop no more power than small, high-revving engines, the former develop more torque. This may not be needed for small cars, but is needed for larger vehicles to get moving with alacrity when the driver gets the green light.
Large vehicles consume more fuel not so much because their engines are less efficient, but rather because of their size (aerodynamics) and weight (inertia). But let's face it: We can't all drive small cars. Ever try to travel any distance in a small car with two restless children in the back seat?
There's got to be a better way of dealing with our national problems than cramming everybody into smaller and smaller cars.
Richard T. Salter II
Bedford, Mass.
It is not the unit's function to provide information about the physical quantity other than the unit of measure; the quantity must be identified in some other way, and the order of the individual parts of a combination unit is completely irrelevant. Crofts thinks the SI order Nm is "correct"; this is a coincidence, since in SI individual units always appear in the same arbitrary order.
SI does recognize the difference between work and torque by using the special name "joule" in place of newton-meter only for work (or other energy quantities), but not for torque. I have also seen a reasonably persuasive argument that the unit of torque ought to be newton-meter per radian.
Finally, if unit order does matter, why does no one complain that steam tables use Btu/lb.-°F for both specific heat and specific entropy, which are physically different, instead of changing the order to Btu/°F-lb. for one of them?
Allentown, Pa.
.
In the example cited, the writer apparently failed to realize that the appropriate measure of rotational distance is a radian and not a revolution, and that there are two pi radians in a revolution (hence his answer of 6.28 hp). Thus, while it might be a helpful notation to use ft.-lbs. to represent work and lbs.-ft. to represent torque, the two unit measures are equivalent for calculation purposes, and there is no inconsistency in the mathematical results obtained from one versus the other.
Joseph J. Neff
Indianapolis
Democratic and Republican California legislators approved the deregulation that restricted the power supply and froze the retail price charged to customers, but ignored the fact that natural gas would double and triple in price when there was a cold Midwest winter, that a normal cyclic drought restricted hydropower, and that several years of low oil prices shut down domestic drilling rigs.
Gasoline-powered small generators are inefficient and have high emissions, compared with any alternative diesel, coal-fired, nuclear-, oil-, or natural gas-powered generator. I hope few Californians will use their gas-guzzling SUVs or trucks as a small business or home power generator.
Ken Cole
Holdrege, Neb.
To the Editor: Recent studies show that fourth- and fifth-grade girls lose the ability to do math because of a lack of iron due to the hormonal changes going on at that age. It would seem that the profession would be better served if ASME lobbied for an iron-rich middle school lunch menu than anything else.
Editor's note: Studies linking iron deficiency in adolescents, particularly in teenage girls, to poor learning skills have been conducted by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore under Ann Bruner and by King's College, London, under Michael Nelson.
Santa Monica, Calif.
To the Editor: I was puzzled by your April 2001 issue
on women in engineering. I do not see why ASME should be concerned about
the sexual or ethnic mix of engineers. ASME should encourage all people
who are capable of quantitative thinking to be engineers, but should not
single out sexes, politically powerful groups, or government-protected
minorities.
Let's treat engineering students and faculty members as individuals.
One effect of the April issue will surely be to discourage men who are
not members of organized pressure groups from entering engineering for
fear of becoming victims of preferential treatment.
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