Mechanical aptitude test

<Snip>

What you, and apparently the quizmaster, are missing is that the
forces (weight) act through the centre point of the masses, which are
at 1 and 5 units respectively from the fulcrum, not at the furthest
distant part of said masses, which would give the 'desired' answer.

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It did strike me that kg-m is a quite obviously a basic metricification
of ft-lb, but it's such a half-arsed job.

 

Sure, but don;t forget that both lb and kg are also used as the normal
'standard' measures of weight in the real world, so it's hardly
surprising that thie still occurs.

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I've always worked in ft/lbs when using torque wrenches. When I was
doing the shims on my old GT750, Haynes only quoted kg/m in the manual.
I did the conversion for the cam cover bolts (my torque wrench only
displays ft/lbs) and it was 78ft/lbs.

Seemed a bit high.... So re-checked. Nope, 78ft/lbs. Haynes and
misplaced a decimal point. It should have worked out at 7.8ft/lbs.

 

*ding*

Annoyed me too.

 

Heheheh, multi-tasking.

 

98%; go me

I got 48 wrong because I thought the wrong answer (suction) would be the
one marked as correct. Strictly speaking, it *is* atmospheric pressure, as
that's what we register as suction. Fair enough, I had to "guesstimate" 44
so I probably didn't deserve to get it right.

Most of the questions are pretty much basic high-school physics. Also, about
a dozen are either badly worded or badly drawn so it's easy to make a
mistake.


Geo

 

Depends what you're used to really, motorcycle magazines always gave engine
performance in hp and kg*m when I was younger, I can't get used to KW and
N*m, despite them being more reasonable.

Geo

 

For someone who even goes to the local garage to get the chain adjusted, I
didn't do really bad: 74%

 

I'm from that lost generation which has a real mix'n'match approach to
units. If it involves scientific calculations then I can only think in
SI units, but for real-world applications I'm far more comfortable with
imperial.

A bit scary that almost two decades after decimalisation we were still
being taught (at primary level) with textbooks that waffled about "new
pence" and had classes on using imperial measures.

 

Are you bollocks. That accolade must surely go to those of us in our
40s now.

So it's not a generation thing, just that you went to a crap school.
When I was doing my O levels in 1976 everything was "metric" (although
not necessarily completely correct SI).

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You're not wrong, though. The obvious thing to do when faced with a
multi-choice question like that is to scan the data quickly and then
match it against the available answers - at which point the 1:3 answer
[1] is obviously the one they want, regardless of the physics
involved. It's just a logical time-saving strategy. No use in real
world mechanics, but hey-ho.

[1] If that's what it is - I CBA to back through the test and look.

 

*waves*

Temperature is one thing that I mix up. When it's cold, I use
Celsius[1] but for hot temperatures I use Farenheit[2].

[1] "Jeez it's cold - must be around 2 degrees out there"
[2] "Jeez it's hot - must be in the 90s out there"

 

it's obviously crap, as I got 90%

 

You're weird. I've never used Fahrenheit for anything, except
conversions for septics.

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FFS! What planet was this on? I mean, I had to learn pounds/oz, LSD
calculations et al when I was younger, but by O levels there was
clearly no point. Seems like either some schools were very backward,
or else mine was very advanced, which I doubt. As for teahcres not
understanding it - how fucking simple would they like it it have been
then?

In any case, the exams were set by the Joint Matriculation Board,
which must have accounted for a significant proportion of the country
at that time, and I wouldn't have expected such major differences with
other boards.

Maybe one of us is misremebering.

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Well, things are getting a bit clearer , but rather slowly. Most my mates in
the UK are familiar with metric but not all that comfortable with it and the
youngest ones finished school around 2000.

I guess metric will never fully replace imperial. "Fancy 568 millilitres"
doesn't have the right sound to it.



Geo

 

"je voudrais une grande bière"

HTH

 

"Une biere formidable" (tm) Cane.

 

"une biere serieux"