首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance,
Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance,
admin
2010-05-14
37
问题
Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance, were determined by technologists, artisans, designers, inventors, and engineers using non-scientific modes of thought. Many features and qualities of the objects that a technologist thinks about cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in the mind by a visual, nonverbal process. In the development of Western technology, it has been non-verbal thinking, by and large, that has fixed the outlines and filled in the details of our material surroundings.
Pyramids, cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometry or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture in the minds of those who built them. The creative shaping process of a technologist’s mind can be seen in nearly every artifact that exists. For example, in designing a diesel engine, a technologist might impress individual ways of nonverbal thinking on the machine by continually using an intuitive sense of rightness and fitness. What would be the shape of the combustion chamber? Where should the valves be placed? Should it have a long or short piston? Such questions have a range of answers that are supplied by experience, by physical requirements, by limitations of available space, and not least by a sense of form. Some decisions, such as wall thickness and pin diameter, may depend on scientific calculations, bat the nonscientific component of design remains primary.
Design courses, then, should be an essential element in engineering curricula. Nonverbal thinking, a central mechanism in engineering design, involves perceptions, the stock-in-trade of the artist, not the scientist. Because perceptive processes are not assumed to entail "hard thinking," nonverbal thought is sometimes seen as a primitive stage in the development of cognitive processes and inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is paradoxical that when the staff of the Historic American Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of machines and isometric views of industrial processes for its historical record of American engineering, the only college students with the requisite abilities were not engineering students, but rather students attending architectural schools.
Its courses in design, which in a strongly analytical engineering curriculum provide the background required for practical problem-solving, are not provided, we can expect to encounter silly but costly errors occurring in advanced engineering systems. For example, early models of high-speed railroad cars loaded with sophisticated controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd random failures that plague automatic control systems are not merely trivial aberrations; they are a reflection of the chaos that results when design is assumed to be primarily a problem in mathematics. (447)
The author uses the example of the early models of high-speed railroad cars primarily to ______.
选项
A、support the thesis that the number of errors in modern engineering systems is likely to increase
B、illustrate the idea that courses in design are the most effective means for reducing the cost of designing engineering systems
C、support the contention that a lack of attention to the nonscientific aspects of design results in poor conceptualization by engineers
D、weaken the proposition that mathematics is a necessary part of the study of design
答案
C
解析
推理判断题。作者列举高速列车无法在雪天行驶这一例子无非是为了证明,如果不考虑所谓非科学的或经验性的问题,就很可能造成愚蠢的,甚至严重的后果。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/IZqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
HungerandfoodinsecurityhavebeencalledAmerica’s"hiddencrisis."Atthesametime,andapparentlyparadoxically,obesity
PlansforoneofBritain’sbiggesthousingdevelopments,of5,000homesworthhundredsofmillionsofpounds,mayhavetobeab
Evenaspharmaceuticalcompaniespouredarecordamountofmoneyintodrugdevelopmentin2005,theindustry’sresearchdrought
A、The41-year-oldmanclaimedtoberesponsibleforlastMonday’sexplosioninNairobi.B、Themanreleasedthenameandonepho
LatenextmonthEurope’spoliticalleaderswillmeetinBerlintomarkthe50thanniversaryoftheTreatyofRome.Today’sEurop
Inourlooks-obsessedsociety,manypeoplethinkthatbeingoverweightisanappearanceissue.Butbeingoverweightisactually
Usuallywhendivorcing,lawsofwhichcountrymightbemostfavorabletothewifefinancially?RomeIIIisquestionedbysomep
徐霞客一生周游考察了16个省,足迹几乎遍及全国。他在考察的过程中,从来不盲目迷信书本上的结论。他发现前人研究地理的记载有许多很不可靠的地方。为了进行真实细致的考察。他很少乘车坐船,几乎全靠双脚翻山越岭,长途跋涉;为了弄清大自然的真相,他总是挑选道路艰险的山
Theysparkleandglitterinthelight.Nootherrocksaresohard.Theyareveryvaluable.Itmightcostthousandsandthousands
那时河里热闹极了;船大半泊着,小半在水上穿梭似的来往。停泊着的都在近市的那一边,我们的船自然也夹在其中。因为这边略略的挤,便觉得那边十分的疏了。在每一只船从那边过去时,我们能画出它的轻轻的影和曲曲的波,在我们的心上;这显示着是空,且显着是静了。那时处处都是
随机试题
在栈顶指针为HS的链栈中,写出计算该链栈中结点个数的函数。
节律规则而强弱交替的脉搏称为
有关衣原体的描述不正确的是
下列对龈袋的描述错误的是
前期物业服务合同的委托人是()。[2003年真题]
易德软件公司是目前国内领先的软件以及服务提供商。经过十多年的发展,依赖“国内+海外”的战略发展规划,已在全球56座城市设立近120个分公司或办事处,覆盖十多个业务领域和重要行业,市场遍及欧洲、亚洲、北美等区域和国家,服务于上千家国内和海外企业客户。相对于软
设A、B是两个随机事件,0<P(A)<1,P(B)>0,P(B|A)+=1,则一定有().
毛泽东说过:“孙中山先生致力国民革命凡四十年还未完成的革命事业,在仅仅两三年,获得了巨大的成就,……这是两党结成了统一战线的结果。”这里的“成就”是指
(1)考生文件夹下有一个工程文件sjt3.vbp,其窗体上有1个名称为Text1的控件数组;一个标题为”排序”的命令按钮。程序运行时,在文本框数组中输入8个整数,如图3-29(a)所示;然后单击”排序”按钮,则8个整数按降序排序,如图3-29(b)所示。
PassageOne(1)Distantindeedseemthedayswhenthetwogreatrivalsofcommercialaviation,BoeingandAirbus,woulduse
最新回复
(
0
)