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Re: Tinkerers who insult engineers and scientists alike rejoice!

"This has nothing to do with blind trial and error. "

Of course it does sometimes! The theory doesn't tell you what you need to know about how to conduct the actual experiment. This is why in science courses they have the classroom studies and the laboratory studies. What you learn in the lab course is NOTHING like what you are learning in the classroom course. Once you get to the Ph.D. level, they take that your classroom background has put you in the top 20% or so of University chemistry graduates. Now it is all lab work and this, quite frankly, is often about trial and error and a feeling for equipment, chemicals and such.

Many very successful students in terms of classwork fail miserably in the laboratory because in many ways it is so unstructured compared to the classroom. Understanding chemistry, physics, or engineering takes discipline and focused study. Actually using it in the laboratory to test interesting hypotheses requires creativity and you find very quickly which of your colleagues have it and which do not.

Since you have never gone through this process of self-discovery and I have, I suggest you have no idea what is involved in the creative process of science. You should stick with quality control. It is good to have people like you who can sweat the details for those who are actually inventing the stuff. How many different light bulbs do you think Edison actually had to make before he hit on the right formulation of wire coating? You think each one was guided by theory? I am sure there was much trial and error. You seem to think things spring forth fully developed, typical of an industrial engineer who has never been on the inventive end of science or engineering.


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