Flash

Propagation of Uncertainty

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt #383
where we are asked to get creative in exactly 80 words using
any form of the required word “calculate”. Here is my flash.

Construction on the Queensboro Bridge, AKA the 59th Street Bridge, New York
© Pinterest

Think about all the calculations involved in bridge building – not the least of which is the maximum weight a bridge can hold at any given time. I’m not a mathematician or an engineer but it’s obvious the answer isn’t one you can get wrong … ever. No guessing allowed! One small miscalculation could spell disaster. Imagine tossing and turning in bed after handing in your numbers to the bridge committee, wondering if the decimal point was in the right place.

NAR©2024
80 Words

Weekend Writing Prompt #383 – Calculate

This is “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy) by Simon & Garfunkel.

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

33 thoughts on “Propagation of Uncertainty”

    1. Sure is! I remember listening to an interview with some politician a few years ago; he was lobbying for the rebuilding of our Tappan Zee Bridge. He felt it was unsafe. A reporter asked him if he would ever ride on the Tappan Zee Bridge. His answer was: Only if I was bound and gagged and locked in the trunk of someone’s car!

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    1. Thanks for that info, Jim. I’m sure they do.
      This thought came to me one day while we were stuck in traffic in the middle of a large expansion bridge: I wonder how the civil engineers go about figuring out the maximum weight a bridge can safely hold. In the most simplistic of terms, they’d probably go with the heaviest vehicle imaginable and determine how many of those would fit safely on the entire length of the bridge in every lane in bumper-to-bumper traffic and do the calculations.
      No matter how you look at it, it’s a daunting task.

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      1. It is a common thought and many people are frightened of bridges.  When the Brooklyn Bridge first opened, people didn’t want to cross it, so they hired Barnum and Baily to bring all of their elephants to cross over the bridge and that made people feel safer.

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  11. Respect ✊ for those who better our lives with such precise calculations. I’d be too nervous —what with the decimal point exactly where it belongs I’d be lost indeed.
    Bridgebuilding and rocket engineering and sciences—gosh, I cannot get my head off the ground in respect. Like, Katherine Johnson. Wow!
    Thanks for sharing.
    Forgive I haven’t been so active around here. Life is full and happy right now.
    Hope your recovery is going well. Bless you. Still praying for you 🤗

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