The roof went poof
It might have been Shaw, or Leacock, or Twain or a composite drawing of them all, but someone summed up academia with the disparaging phrase “Those who can do, and those who can’t teach”. I’ve done and I’ve taught so I’m neither praised nor insulted. But for the poor student who seeks knowledge, some days just make you say “Huh?”.
Yesterday, the students at a local university were requested (is that a polite way of suggesting that one should go elsewhere?) to escape as fast as they could run leave the local science and engineering faculty building. Please note the academic discipline before continuing in a single file to the nearest exit. You see, as we await yet another snow storm, the previous accumulations just haven’t “gone away”.
Due to the short time that has elapsed between earlier snow storms, certain buildings have not been cleared of their white cover. In fact, the engineering faculty was carrying an accumlated depth estimated to be in excess of three metres of quality frozen precipitation. Estimating the weight of snow cover is an arcane science at best, since the stuff doesn’t have uniform crystal structure, but let’s just settle for the idea that three meters is probably more than one wants to leave on a flat roof in our climate zone. Not beyond the mathematical abilities of an average applied science major, but best done before rather than after damage has occurred.
Unfortunately, the professors in the faculty may have been distracted, because no calculation nor removal took place during the last few weeks, and yesterday the roof went poof. I can only imagine how such an event plays out around the water cooler. Bearded men with slide rules…
In any case, the students currently enrolled in the structural load section of some course now have a case study for the next few weeks: load distribution, calculation of mass, breaking point of roof girders, etc. I’m not an engineer, but I played one in a recent dream sequence.
