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Quote of the Day: Science and Engineering
“In science, if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
In engineering, if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
Of course, you seldom, if ever, see either pure state.” — Richard Hamming, 1991
When I started my undergraduate education, my major was in Chemistry and I wanted to be a research chemist. After taking organic chemistry, I changed my major to Computer Science, my second favorite subject in High School. In graduate school, I took mostly Electrical Engineering courses, researching Digital Signal Processing for radio communications. In the mid-1970s, Richard Hamming visited our lab. A lab member went bananas over his visit, saying “Do you realize the significance? Hamming codes, Hamming window,” ending with, “He’s an [expletive] genius.” But when you look at his entire life, you’ll see his wisdom surpasses his outstanding creativity.
After getting a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1942, Hamming became an Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville. He left Louisville in April 1945 to work on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos NM. While there, he had his first encounter between “Engineering” and Science:
When I asked what it was, he said, “It is the probability that the test bomb will ignite the whole atmosphere.” I decided I would check it myself! The next day when he came for the answers I remarked to him, “The arithmetic was apparently correct but I do not know about the formulas for the capture cross sections for oxygen and nitrogen — after all, there could be no experiments at the needed energy levels.” He replied, like a physicist talking to a mathematician, that he wanted me to check the arithmetic not the physics, and left. I said to myself, “What have you done, Hamming, you are involved in risking all of life that is known in the Universe, and you do not know much of an essential part?”
In 1946, he took a job at Bell Laboratories, sharing an office with the brilliant Claude Shannon, becoming a member of the “Young Turks.” His landmark paper, written in 1950, introduced the concept of the Hamming Distance which counts how many changes are needed to change one code word into another. He then developed a family of error correcting Hamming Codes which are considered “perfect codes.” While learning Digital Signal Processing, the Hamming Window was also an efficient technique we used.
As a Young Turk, Hamming resented older scientists who used up space and resources that would be better used by the Young Turks. Looking at a poster of the Bell Labs’ achievements, he had worked with nearly all of those listed in the first half of his career, but none in the second half. He decided to leave Bell labs in 1976.
Having met Dr. Hamming for just a short time, he seemed to be down-to-earth and quite approachable. He was probably at the University of Illinois looking for a teaching position, but ended up at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, concentrating on teaching and writing books. The quote above comes from The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1991). Some more gems from this book:
- The past is… much more uncertain—or even falsely reported—than is usually recognized.*
- Education is what, when, and why to do things. Training is how to do it. Either one without the other is not of much use.
- All of engineering involves some creativity to cover the parts not known, and almost all of science includes some practical engineering to translate the abstractions into practice.
- The more complex the designed system the more field maintenance must be central to the final design. Only when field maintenance is part of the original design can it be safely controlled.
Finally, another quote contemporaneous with our long struggle last week:
- The feeling of having free will is deep in us and we are reluctant to give it up for ourselves—but we are often willing to deny it to others!
I’m glad I met Dr. Hamming and appreciated his wisdom. Have you met a famous person that you also appreciated?
* A variation of the famous Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia quote, “I believe everything the media tells me except for anything for which I have direct personal knowledge, which they always get wrong.”
Published in General
I’ve met a few famous people, and one of my favorites was Vidal Sassoon. He was a sweet and humble man who always seemed in disbelief about his fame and success. He once told me he had become a hairdresser to meet girls. I guess that came true.
I think this approach worked for Warren Beatty too, at least in that movie.
Never heard of him, but those are some good quotes.
Apparently, not everyone is clear on what engineers do:
In addition to the original Dr. Hamming quote, I appreciate him saying that engineering involves creativity too.
This entry is part of our Quote of the Day series. We have many openings on the October Schedule. We’ve even include tips for finding great quotes. Join in the fun and sign up today!
[cough, cough, humble bragging, more than a “few”, cough, cough]
I can’t help it if I’ve had an interesting life.
My primary identity does not involve race, gender, ethnicity, or place of origin–it is my mindset of “engineer”. It affects my every thought and it separates me from most other people. I am calling for all those that think like engineers to embrace their true identity.
My first name is Scott.
If we did our DNA would not continue in the gene pool.
I am about as geeky a nerd as they come, it is a minor miracle that my wife found something in me beyond my “knack” abilities, and that I have spawned two children. One is normal, the other will continue in my footsteps. He will be of the clan of STEM folks. The folks whose saving grace will help our civilization continue in a manner that is has grow accustomed, even though for the majority of our citizens it is no different for them to call it magic.
I’m not clear on what engineers do. And I’m the one doing it!
I always figured that was a made-up brand name like Häagen-Dazs!
Engineers enginate, obviously.
Haha! He was a real person and that was his real name.
I knew a physicist who whenever he heard someone say, It isn’t rocket science! would invariably grumble, “All the research on rockets is done, there’s no such thing as rocket science anymore, now it’s just engineering!”
Scientists study problems,
Engineers solve problems.
I am delighted and somewhat nervous to say that the DNA continues. I can only hope for my children that my wife has improved my humble nerdy offerings considerably.