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Bill Offline OP
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Rev, you asked. You shouldn't have left me an opening like that. This may not be extremely interesting, but here it is.

Basically an Electronic Engineer (EE) designs electronic equipment. Is that simple enough? Well of course it is too simple. EEs work on equipment of all kinds. They design:

  • the electronics in Martian Rovers.
  • digital clocks.
  • computer chips.
  • radios and TVs.
  • metal detectors.
  • LED lights.
  • control equipment for manufacturing.
  • computers.
  • Almost anything that uses anything electronic.

And of course they do this at different levels. Different EEs design computer chips and computers. Computer designers used components designed by other EEs.

There is another side to this. Sometimes you will see a reference to Electrical/Electronic Engineers. Back in the old days the difference was more obvious. Electrical engineers worked with power circuits. Electronic engineers worked with vacuum tubes. Well, those days are long gone. There is I think still some separation that way, but with modern electronics you get a huge overlap.

And they do a lot of other things as well. In my career I started off by writing test plans for the communications systems on the Space Shuttle. Then I wrote TV plans for use during Shuttle flights. Yes they had a different TV plan for each flight, so they could schedule all the different activities. After the Challenger explosion I analyzed the Shuttles Pyrotechnic circuits to see if there were any problems there. After that I designed an environmental monitoring system for the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This monitored the air in the clean work areas to verify that the area was clean and had the required temperature and humidity. When I finished that I did some software maintenance on the central data station for the system. Then I was given the job of designing a hydrogen leak detection system for the Delta IV rocket system. In these systems I used off the shelf components and designed the mounting and interconnections so that they would work as required.

And as an aside I was asked to find a way to measure the position of the Delta IV components, first stage, second stage, etc. in real time to allow quick and easy assembly before launch. I didn't really design anything there, I just searched out equipment that could be used to perform the task.

I think one reason I got do do a number of these things was that I have a BS in physics. That meant that I could quickly grasp the idea of how various detectors worked and so could figure out how to use them.

Does that put you to sleep satisfactorily?

Bill Gill


C is not the speed of light in a vacuum.
C is the universal speed limit.
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Originally Posted By: Bill
Rev, you asked. You shouldn't have left me an opening like that. This may not be extremely interesting, but here it is.

... I think one reason I got do do a number of these things was that I have a BS in physics. That meant that I could quickly grasp the idea of how various detectors worked and so could figure out how to use them.

Does that put you to sleep satisfactorily?

Bill Gill
Very helpful BG. I wish all posts, here, were as interesting and useful ... Were you involved in any of the research?

BTW, BG, I have a beautiful official, full-colour picture (27cm X 34cm) of the launch of the Shuttle from Cape Kennedy, which my wife and I saw, live. We were invited by a friend who worked on the project. That was in March 1982.

==============================

What do you know about Seth Lloyd of MIT? I have his book on the PROGRAMMING THE UNIVERSE (2006)--The Quantum Computer Takes on the Universe.
http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/lloyd/links.html
The story of SL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Lloyd
=====================
I wish I understood half of what I read. In the final pages, Chapter 8, Complexity Simplified--I wish that was so (p.207)--Lloyd implies that science is a very ify art.

AND HOW IS THIS AS A CLOSING SENTENCE (p.211)?
"The collision of two atoms can--and does--change the furture of the universe."

Last edited by Revlgking; 11/14/12 07:25 PM.

G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org
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Originally Posted By: Revlgking
AND HOW IS THIS AS A CLOSING SENTENCE (p.211)?
"The collision of two atoms can--and does--change the furture of the universe."

Well, in one way anything that happens, be it very small or very large "changes the future of the universe". "Changing the future" is a common sort of a phrase, but in fact it is a complete mis-statement. The future doesn't exist until after the event, so it can't be changed. What each event does is to set the universe in a particular state, which will affect all future states.

This of course assumes that predestination is not a valid concept. If the whole course of the universe is already determined then no event will affect the future.

Bill Gill


C is not the speed of light in a vacuum.
C is the universal speed limit.
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Originally Posted By: Bill
Originally Posted By: Revlgking
AND HOW IS THIS AS A CLOSING SENTENCE (p.211)?
"The collision of two atoms can--and does--change the furture of the universe."
... This of course assumes that predestination is not a valid concept. If the whole course of the universe is already determined then no event will affect the future. Bill Gill
So BG, about the whole course of the universe, may I ask: Do you accept the concept of determinism to be a fact, or what?

Tell us about your philosophy and theology. Or are you an atheist?

Me? At this point, I like what the process philosophers and theologians -- Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne have to say.




Last edited by Revlgking; 11/14/12 10:15 PM.

G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org

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