I AM THE WALRUS
Time-elapsed photography is used to show how the stars appear to rotate around the North Star in the night sky. In reality, it is the Earth that is rotating. This photo clearly illustrates a relationship between Distance and Time that the first Star Gazers observed and recorded with written expressions because the camera had not yet been invented.
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things;
Of shoes.. and ships... and ceiling wax...of cabbages and kings.
And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings."
("The Walrus and the Carpenter," poem by Lewis Carroll, 1871 )
CAN WE TALK?
PTOA Readers and Students have arrived at one of the junctions that separate Old School Process Operators from Modern Process Operators.
Now we must have "THE TALK"...
Unpleasant and uncomfortable as it may be for both of us...
Yes, it is time to have the hard discussion about
Mathematical Expressions aka Mathematical Formulas.
THE STAR GAZERS
Before i-Stuff, before insta-stuff, an lo and behold even before the miracle of downloadable music of every possible genre imaginable...
Before Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and Jack Kilby, before Alexander Graham Bell and many, many other inventors responsible for bringing this learning delivery method to you...
the Cosmos existed.
Human beings did not create the Cosmos.
In fact, Humans are new guests at the Cosmos party.
Eventually some Humans had sufficient spare time to gaze up into the night sky and noticed cyclical patterns that appeared in the Cosmos.
Ever since those days of yore Humans have been trying to decode the rules of the Universe.
Ergo, Human Beings have just been trying to make sense of what existed well before humankind was around to question.
Mathematical expressions ...
no matter how overwhelming they may appear ...
are derived from the observations of relationships between just three Basic Units:
Stuff.
Text books call stuff "Matter" and "Mass." Stuff is delved into more thoroughly below.
Length and/or Distance. Length can be measured in angstroms, millimeters, centimeters, meters, inches, feet, yards, etc.
The term Distance is used for long travel-type lengths like miles, kilometers, light years, etc.
This stop watch coud not be used at the Olympics because it does not accurately measure milliseconds.
Time. Time can be measured in millennia, centuries, decades, years, hours, days, minutes, seconds or milliseconds, etc.
STUFF (AKA MASS AND MATTER)
Go figure...
Stuff is the harder of the three things to relate to even though it is the only one of the three parameters that can usually be touched and seen.
Microscopic view of Bird Flu.
Stop and look about.
Basically whatever you can see ...
even if it is a flu virus only visible with a high-powered microscope ...
qualifies as "Stuff."
(And in the event it really IS a flu virus be sure to wash your hands!)
Even the mysterious floaties that can be seen when the sun shines through the windows qualify as "Stuff."
Stuff can be measured in all kinds of SI System Units (aka Metric System) like nanograms, centigrams, milligrams, grams, kilograms, and tonnes (1000 kilograms = 1 tonne).
The USA still uses the English system of units; the basic mass unit in the English system is the Pound-of-Mass (written as "Lbm").
The distinction of Pound-of-Mass is necessary to avoid confusion with Pound-of-Force (written as "Lbf"). The difference between the two will be featured in future PTOA Segments that focus on the process variable "Pressure."
The confusion between Pound-of-Mass and Pound-of-Force was caused by a dude named Isaac Newton during the process of creating definitions with mathematical expressions related to his observations of Earth's gravity.
Sir Isaac really should have engaged in a "Do Over" before he published the definitions he created.
Anyway...there was no "Do Over" ...
So when doing things like launching space craft to the moon, understanding when and how to use Pound of Mass (Lbm) versus Pound of Force (Lbf) is crucial.
For the time being, PTOA Readers and Students can assume a Pound of Mass (Lbm) is equal to a Pound of Force (Lbf) and consider them both Basic Units.
Until that future focus study, the use of the word "Pound" will mean "Pound-of-Mass" and be written just "Lb."
PTOA Readers and Students probably already know that 2000 Pounds of any mass on Earth = 1 ton.
THE STUFF THAT STUFF IS MADE OF
All Stuff has a chemical structure made up of elements which can be riding solo or bonded together.
Depending upon the chemical composition and bonding of elements that make up Stuff, the Stuff has unique physical properties (for example, melting point and a boiling point).
The above schematic shows the chemical structure of two hydrocarbons. Benzene has a Melting Point of 5.5 deg C (42 deg F). Adding a Carbon atom and 3 Hydrogen atoms (CH3) to benzene creates Toluene. Toluene melts at a much lower temperature, -93 deg C (-135 deg F).
PTOA Readers and Students already know that interesting things happen to Stuff while the temperature is being raised and lowered...like phase changes.
The Stuff also has unique chemical properties, too.
For example, how easy Stuff can react with Other Stuff describes its "Reactivity"; how easy the Stuff can catch on fire describes its "Flammability."
PTOA Readers and Students already know some hydrocarbon Stuff can react under certain conditions to cause an exothermic or endothermic reaction.
On Earth, the list of possible elements from which Stuff can be made is shown below.
TAKE HOME MESSAGES: Humans use mathematical expressions for shorthand to describe their best guess of how the Universe works.
The mathematical expressions define concepts Humans created (the next PTOA Segment will show how "Speed" was defined).
All of the defined entities described by mathematical expressions can be broken down into basic units of Stuff (aka Mass and Matter), Length or Distance, and Time.
On Earth, the list of Stuff that Stuff can be made of is called the Periodic Table of the Elements.
All Stuff (aka Mass and Matter) has unique physical and chemical properties.
______________________________________________
The following conversion calculations are added for the bemusement of the truly curious wondering how defined entities known as "Volume," "Density," "BTU," "Horsepower," and "KiloWatt" are derived from the three Basic Units of Mass, Length, and Time.
A. Breakdown the definition of "Volume" into Basic Units:
Volume = (Length * Length * Length) = L3 (Examples of units in3, ft3)
Breakdown of the common volume "One Gallon" into Basic Units:
1 gallon * (1 ft3/ 0.1336 gallon) = 7.48 ft3
B. Breakdown the definition of "Density" into Basic Units:
Density = (Mass/Volume) = (Mass/Length3)
Given: Density of Water at 60 °F = 8.34 Lbm/gallon
8.34 Lbm/Gallon * (7.48 Gallon /1 ft3) = 62.4 Lbm/ft3
C. Breakdown the energy definition of "BTU" into Basic Units:
ft=foot and is a unit of Length s=second and is a unit of Time
1 BTU * [(778 foot-Lbf)/(1BTU)] = 778 ft-Lbf
D. Breakdown Mechanical and Electrical Power Definitions into Basic Units:
1 HP= 1 Horsepower
FYI: Real life experiments with horses were performed to develop the definition of a "horsepower."
1 HP * (550 ft-Lbf/s)/ 1 HP = 550 ft-Lbf/s
1 kiloW = 1000 Watts
1 kW * (1.34 HP/kW)*[(550 ft-Lbf/s)] * 1/1 HP = 737 ft-Lbf/s
©2015 PTOA Segment 00060
Process Industry Applied STEM
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