Posted by Sherman in Idaho [162.158.255.80] on Tuesday, February 02, 2016 at 20:57:56 :
In Reply to: Here is the story posted by Daryl in Oz [162.158.1.102] on Tuesday, February 02, 2016 at 04:03:13 :
It must have taken some talking to get people to invest in that goofball idea. Of course these days he'd just sell it straight to the government, where they hand out million dollar DARPA grants like candy, especially if it sounded environmental somehow.
I guess here we see the difference between the typical scientist and the typical engineer. The engineer doesn't believe anything works until he's built it and tested it. Mr. Tucker tried all kinds of screwy snow machines before he came up with the Sno-Cat. One was a pair of giant screws that revolved on an axis parallel to the way the machine went. It was supposed to "screw" its way along the top of the snow. But the main thing is every idea he came up with, he built a prototype early. They were minimal because they were only testing the interface between the machine and the snow. By the time he built the first Sno-Cat, he'd already proved the concept with prototypes. This physicist doesn't even seem to have done calculations, let alone measurements. He could have tested the basic idea with a small model even. But to go all the way to Antarctica without ever even testing it on snow? That would be like the astronauts taking the Lunar Rover to the moon without ever trying it on Earth first. I don't think anything's ever been invented that worked perfectly the first time.
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