Author Topic: standards (Read 267 times)

capt. apathy · « **on:** August 01, 2003, 04:18:45 PM »

Does the statement, "We've always done it that way" ring any bells...?

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used?

Because that's the way they built them in England, and English
expatriates designed the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?

Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then?

Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel! spacing.

Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?

Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and
England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads?

Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is
derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war
chariot.

And bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a spec and told we have always done it that way and wonder what horse's bellybutton came up with that, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.

Now the twist to the story...

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the
world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a Horse's ass.

And you thought being a horse's bellybutton wasn't important ??

midnight Target · « **Reply #1 on:** August 01, 2003, 05:05:17 PM »

That is excellent! I will use that in my Quality Training from now on!

Here is one I use...

Start with a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. Before long, an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the Banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water. After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result - all the apes are sprayed with cold water.

This continues thru several more attempts.

Pretty soon, when another ape tries to climb the stairs, the other apes
will try to prevent it.

Now, Turn off the cold water. Remove one ape from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other apes attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again, replace a third original ape with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well.

Two of the four apes that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest ape.

After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes which have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs. Why not? Because that's the way it's always been around here.

And that's how company policy begins....

Dune · « **Reply #2 on:** August 01, 2003, 05:18:05 PM »

Not really true:

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm

john9001 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 01, 2003, 06:53:00 PM »

what does "Not really true:" mean?

your wife says "have you been cheating on me"?, and you say "not really"

cop say "have you been drinking?" and you say"not really"

i guess it's how you define "really"

capt. apathy · « **Reply #4 on:** August 01, 2003, 06:57:38 PM »

I've always loved the monkey story. although I doubt the experiment has ever been done, I'm sure the results would end up that way.

and like the train story, if a story is really good it doesn't matter if it's completely true.

Gadfly · « **Reply #5 on:** August 01, 2003, 07:07:46 PM »

What kind of horses did the Russians have?