Forces to Reckon With

I love to design stuff.  I love to try to figure out how to make an idea work better. 

The other day I was doing just that, working with a model on my computer, testing it virtually with this totally cool simulation.  I tell it what force to apply in on what place, and where to put a fixture to hold the part in place while the force is applied.  Then it does its magic and you get a color image that explains how the part will withstand or fail under under the load.

So, I got done with a design that took about two day's time to work out, and as a precaution, I reversed the load and the fixture - applied the force and the holding fixture 180 degrees opposite.  But it totally failed...

In a moment of hightened tension (perhaps I need to get out more) I hit print and took the image to my boss. 

"Wow!" he said, "what do you think is wrong?!" 

In a panicked tone I exclaimed, "Newton was WRONG!"  (implying that to every action there is actually NOT an equal and opposite reaction - and HERE WAS the evidence!)

We all got a good laugh, and we did find the real problem, which was something unrealistic in the way I had set it up.  but it did get me to thinking...

Conclusions made in the midst of the discovery are often wrong.  You have to complete the discovery to learn the actual truth in a matter.  It does not matter what your opinion is, nor does it matter what you are feeling - the truth will either work in your benefit or it will "react" on you.

If a car meets a semi-truck in an intersection, guess who wins?  It does not matter at the point of collision who is in the car, how right they feel about being in that intersection, nor does it matter why.  At that moment in time, physics suddenly and forcefully makes its presence known in an unmistakable way.  This is how truth is.

You will have a serious change of direction someday if your opinion runs cross-ways with the truth.