engineering jokes

[CatalinaWOW]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/horses-pass/

Snopes article bends over backwards falsifying this line of thought. 

It points out that that the US equipment was not literally built by British expats.  True enough.  But a huge majority of Americans at the time of railroad initiation were descendents of immigrants from the island kingdom, and the technical tradition and trades of the US were very heavily influenced by the same (note which system of units is still used here.  It isn't the French or German or Russian or any other).  So saying that US wagon standards came from England is probably not false.

In another example it brings up the lack of standardization in Southern railroads, but doesn't mention that of the three gauges used, one was the standard gauge discussed in the lineage, one was the British broad gauge (which was both an attempt to modernize for the conditions of the time and an attempt to create a proprietary, non compatible standard for commercial competitive reasons).  It seems likely that as Snope's says, there is a strong grain of truth in much of the story. 

The story does go off the deep end a bit when it ties the space shuttle to this, but I think a more balanced view would say this logic train is generally correct, if not traceably and literally true in every word.

[jmelson]

When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two booster rockets attached to the side 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 might 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 had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, the major 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!!! Don't you just love engineering?

The SRB's have a diameter of 12.17 feet, (3.71m), so quite a bit wider than the train tracks.  That tunnel must be more than "slightly" wider than the track.

Jon

[rrinker]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/horses-pass/

Snopes article bends over backwards falsifying this line of thought. 

It points out that that the US equipment was not literally built by British expats.  True enough.  But a huge majority of Americans at the time of railroad initiation were descendents of immigrants from the island kingdom, and the technical tradition and trades of the US were very heavily influenced by the same (note which system of units is still used here.  It isn't the French or German or Russian or any other).  So saying that US wagon standards came from England is probably not false.

In another example it brings up the lack of standardization in Southern railroads, but doesn't mention that of the three gauges used, one was the standard gauge discussed in the lineage, one was the British broad gauge (which was both an attempt to modernize for the conditions of the time and an attempt to create a proprietary, non compatible standard for commercial competitive reasons).  It seems likely that as Snope's says, there is a strong grain of truth in much of the story. 

The story does go off the deep end a bit when it ties the space shuttle to this, but I think a more balanced view would say this logic train is generally correct, if not traceably and literally true in every word.

 Also, many of the early locomotives on some of the first railroads in the US were actually built by British companies and shipped over on boats. One is part of a diveable wreck of the coast of New Jersey. My 'local' railroad, and the one I model, was initially backed by investors from England, and also the first locomotives used were shipped over, before various American builders became established.

[coppercone2]

what if gordon freedman was a sales engineer instead of a theoretical physicist?

[schmitt trigger]

Another dumb engineering joke:

A new teacher is querying a group of new students about their names:

"My name is John Smith" says one.
"My name is Robert White" says another.
"My name is Mary O'Donnell" says a third.
Then another student: "my name is Milli Current Flow".
"WHAT?" replies the teacher.
"What you heard Milli Current Flow" she answers.
And the teacher replies back: "Your name is too long. I'm going to call you Milliamp" .

[coppercone2]

here is like 400 minutes of engineering jokes

[palindrom]

Upgrading your Ethernet to cat.6 hardware is a real eye-opener.

[BU508A]

An opinion  without 3.14 is an onion.

Just to make that clear.

[coppercone2]

salary

[TerraHertz]

I saved this file, to read after I finish all my current projects.


 

[Canis Dirus Leidy]

Trust me, I'm an engineer!
https://youtu.be/rp8hvyjZWHs

[tautech]

Trust me, I'm an engineer!
https://youtu.be/rp8hvyjZWHs

The crane toppling over @ 1.32 happened ~10 miles from me a few years back.
One on either side of a tidal creek lifting in tandem a 50m long foot bridge from the roadway bridge onto the new abutments but one crane pad gave way. 

[soldar]

I find the notion that railway standard gauge has come down since Roman times beyond silly and find it difficult to believe anyone would take it seriously.

[Lord of nothing]

Quess what that is: 

https://aaronia.de/abschirmung/null-gauss-kammer/

[ebastler]

Quess what that is: 

A magnetic shielding tube? I fail to see the joke there. 

[Lord of nothing]

a Steel pipe for 3980,-€

[ebastler]

No, it‘s mu metal.
Feel free to make your own and start a competing business. ;-)

[soldar]

So it's not a mousetrap?

[JackJones]

I'm much more interested about these to be honest:



https://aaronia.de/abschirmung/aaronia-baldachine/

[soldar]

I'm much more interested about these to be honest: https://aaronia.de/abschirmung/aaronia-baldachine/

That's the Pope's bed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldachin

(Or just a mosquito net?)

[BU508A]

This is a nice one. Sorry, but some of the meme are more or less German-internally (sort of)

It all started with a broken door at the university in Mainz.

The sign is saying: Broken.  Technician has been informed.





And then the story starts ....        

https://www.buzzfeed.com/de/sebastianfiebrig/techniker-ist-informiert

[Berni]

Hah that is quite the story behind repairing a door.

Understanding German does help with understanding some of the more local memes tho.

[BU508A]

One of my favourites there is this one:



The guy is Walter Ulbricht, formerly leader of the DDR and the one who was responsible for building the wall in Berlin.

On 15th of June in 1961, shortly before the building of the wall starts, he stated in a press conference: "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten."
Means: "Nobody has an intention to build a wall."

And, you surely guessed it, it becomes this meme. 

(Nobody has the intention to inform a technician.)

[tocsa120ls]

A priest, a surgeon and an engineer are playing golf, when the groundskeeper asks them to play through a slower group. He tells them that those were the firefighters that saved the city last year but they all went blind in a freak explosion.
The priest says "oh how terrible, I will say a prayer for their well-being"
The surgeon says "that's just awful but I have a good buddy who's an ophthalmologist, let me get them an appointment"
The engineer looks in disbelief, then asks "Okay, but why don't they play at night then??"

[Canis Dirus Leidy]

Embedder's Handbook: