Thought I'd take a chance that some engineering type here has heard the quotation for which I am searching.
This quote, which I will not try to paraphrase, speaks to the issue of knowledge, and how, even if you are familiar with a subject, your knowledge is incomplete unless you are able to measure and express in numbers what you are talking about.
Anybody heard this one? It's in a book around here somewhere.
Thanks in advance.
It's quite easy to find it via Google, y'know?
William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1824 - 1907) : When you measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it, but when you cannot express it in numbers your knowledge about is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. Quoted in D MacHale, Comic Sections (Dublin 1993)
"BFoelsch" snipped-for-privacy@snet.ditch.this.net wrote :
I'm embarrassed!
Never thought about using Google to find a quotation.
Anyway, thanks for the help.
A better version is: "If you can't measure it, you can't control it."
Al
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required