28 Mar '12 12:55>
Originally posted by RJHindsOk you studied engineering so how about this.
Why must you guys resort to hypothetical questions?
You are doing an engineering project where you are building sea defences to protect against tsunamis.
You are told that the requirement is for the sea defences to be able to withstand a 1 in 100 yr event so
to determine the required height of the sea wall you need to look up the records of tsunamis in the area
and determine the frequency of different sized waves to work out how high the wall would have to be to
withstand a 1 in 100 yr event.
Then someone asks this question.
"given that for an earthquake to cause a tsunami it needs to cause a vertical shift in sea floor height, what
would happen if the earthquake both caused a tsunami and caused the land on which we are building this
sea wall to drop?"
This is a hypothetical "what if" question.
It is important and relevant because it highlights a potential weakness in the design of your sea defences.
If the area in question is prone to earthquakes where the land changes height then that must be factored in
to the hight of wall needed to withstand a 100 year event.
Hypothetical questions are an important and perfectly valid method of exploring an issue or argument.
Another related form is the 'thought experiment' in which you think your way through the consequences of the
rules or laws of a system to see what outcome theory predicts for a given situation.
This can be used to test your theoretical understanding, if the result of the situation is already known then you can
see if your theoretical understanding matches what happens in reality.
It can also be used to predict the outcome of a situation that has not yet been observed.
If you really were an engineer I am astonished that you don't appear to understand the utility and purpose of
hypothetical questions.