Failure Definition and 248 Threads

Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person might consider a failure what another person considers a success, particularly in cases of direct competition or a zero-sum game. Similarly, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants, such that a situation that one considers to be a failure, another might consider to be a success, a qualified success or a neutral situation.
It may also be difficult or impossible to ascertain whether a situation meets criteria for failure or success due to ambiguous or ill-defined definition of those criteria. Finding useful and effective criteria, or heuristics, to judge the success or failure of a situation may itself be a significant task.

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  1. B

    How can I improve my studying and test-taking skills for engineering courses?

    After 2 years of Electrical Engineering studies I want to change to something else. What would be the most appropriate field and the closest to engineering but not engineering, sort of? *****I couldn't handle it, too hard for me. I am so sad and stressed , I am in trouble.
  2. Ivan Seeking

    Collecting, Analysing, and Exploiting Failure Data from large IT installations

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2FWMO2QonY&feature=dir
  3. C

    Failure of the sylow counting argument

    show that there is a normal subgroup of G of order 5 when G is a group of order 30. My friend just called me with this problem, he said the usual method of solution fails. (i.e. using sylow and then showing that the subgroup is unique and deducing that it must therefore be normal), I told him to...
  4. M

    LHC Magnet Test Failure: Latest Updates and Delay Information

    See: http://user.web.cern.ch/user/QuickLinks/Announcements/2007/LHCInnerTriplet.html" What's the latest news on the LHC? How bad is the damage? How long will the delay be?
  5. jal

    Fermilab Statement on LHC Magnet Test Failure

    Everyone might have time to polish their theory. http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/20070329_page01.html Fermilab Statement on LHC Magnet Test Failure
  6. B

    What Are Common Failure Modes of Strain Gauges and How Can They Be Induced?

    I am trying to determine some failure modes of strain gauges and the means of accomplishing some of them. Things like loose leads, debonding, physical damage, thermal effects, doing things that cause saturation. I am looking for ideas of what other failure modes are and ways to accomplish...
  7. E

    Estimating Chip Failure Time: Geometric MLE

    Homework Statement time till first failure of a chip is to be estimated. 3 such chips were tested, they worked for 30, 34, 33 days without failure. Find MLE of the parameter. The Attempt at a Solution first i want to confirm this: is this geometric distribution?
  8. C

    Structural failure of steel due to heat?

    Hi I was wondering how heat effects the tensile strength of steel. Since there are various alloys under the banner of 'steel', I was hoping for simply a general idea of the effect, if possible. Here is a quick quote to steer us in a good direction:Most steel has other metals added to tune...
  9. L

    Catching up in math after calc 1 failure.

    I am not to great in math as I have never really had a good teacher, But i don't blame it on the teacher. I was just recently in a calc 1 class and got a D and have to go back and retake it. Thogh I plan to do so, I still need to brush up my lower level math, such as pre-calc and algebra...
  10. B

    String theory is a complete scientific failure by Daniel Friedan

    "string theory is a complete scientific failure" by Daniel Friedan to make it clear, I am quoting Daniel Friedan, a former string theorist at Rutgers from hep-th/0204131 "The long-standing crisis of string theory" "String theory has no credibility as a candidate theory of physics...
  11. Orion1

    Did a Rocket Booster Fail in this Viral Video?

    I thought this would be an interesting video for future engineers to watch: http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/31492/Falling_Stars.html" It appears to me that one of the boosters completely failed to ignite.
  12. S

    Probabilty of reliability and the failure rate

    I am currently studying for a business qualification I am stumbling over a question. It concerns calculating failure rate. The equation I know for this involves knowing the number of failures over a given time. However the question is: "A device has a reliability of 0.8 over 2000 hours...
  13. S

    Calculating Failure Rate: 0.8 Reliability in 2000 Hours

    I am currently studying for a business qualification I am stubling over a question. It concerns calculating failure rate. The equation I know for this needs the number of failures over the total time. However the question is: "A device has a reliability of 0.8 over 2000 hours, calculate...
  14. S

    Diode Failure: Causes & Effects

    Does anyone have any information on diode failure? I'm interested in knowing how diodes can fail and what happens when they do fail. Specifically, what conditions of a diode will cause it to fail to be a closed circuit either direction criteria (like, become as useful as a wire)?
  15. Clausius2

    Solving Car Failure: 93 Ford Aspire

    NOOOO is not my Firebird what is wrong, it is the 93 Ford Aspire of my roommate. It suddenly shut down when driving, deccelerating and finally swtching off. The ignition is working, but the engine does not start. It does not start and stalls, only it does not achieve to start. It does not seem a...
  16. Z

    The failure of the free electron theory of metals

    I was woundering? why did the free electron theory of metals fail (the free electron model)?
  17. Pengwuino

    Can America compete: A textbook case of failure

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12705167/ Damn textbook industry is run like the mob :rolleyes:
  18. Cyrus

    Why Was Failure Not an Option for the Space Program?

    I was just watching the program, "failure is not an option" on the history channel. Man, that was a very well made show. It went through the space program in the United States. The 60's and 70's were awesome times. The guys like Gene Krantz would give these eloquent speeches to their team off...
  19. Mk

    28th Stem Cell Therapy Patient to be Healed of Heart Failure in Thailand

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060109/lf_nm/thailand_stemcells_dc
  20. D

    Failure of Levene's test for equality of variance

    Hey all, I am currently working on the statistics part of my Master thesis and I am conducting an ANOVA test to compare mean variances between three samples. Four out of the 15 compared variables do not satisfy Levene's test for equality of variance.:cry: I know that ANOVA is relatively...
  21. L

    Improving Performance in Physics C: Tips and Recommendations

    For some reason, I'm doing very well in Calculus BC but in Physics C I just blank out. We are doing applications of Newton's Laws and it seems easy, but usually I just blank out one a major test. I feel like an idot compared to everyone else. I would like some reccomendations on how I can do...
  22. A

    Bearing failure rating? Simple rev counter?

    Firstly I would like to point out I have absolutely no idea what I am doing and will most likely be blind or dead by tomorrow. But anyway. I've finally finished me first turbo jet engine (from scratch I would like to add and designed myself and dodgy as I am pretty convinced that it won't...
  23. A

    Bearing failure rating? Simple rev counter?

    Firstly I would like to point out I have absolutely no idea what I am doing and will most likely be blind or dead by tomorrow. But anyway. I've finally finished me first turbo jet engine :approve: (from scratch I would like to add and designed myself and dodgy as :biggrin: I am pretty...
  24. A

    Engineering Resistor Failure: Is it Open or Short Circuit?

    The statement, "when a resistor fails, it will normally open." is true. But I don't understand: when a resistor fails, doesn't that mean that the resistor doesn't work? so doesn't that mean that resistance=0=short circuit?
  25. R

    Airliner crashes due to decompression failure ?

    If an airliner looses it's air supply in flight (decompression) and crashes as we read about last week and all of the people were found EXCEPT the pilot I wonder what actually happened. What if the pilot wanted to crash the aircraft,for some reason, and had a plan to do it as follows: (1)...
  26. Q

    News Is Unilateral Military Intervention Justified to Save Lives in Crisis Zones?

    For the last two decades, Sudan has been in a state of complete anarchy. The Muslim government has been determined to be responsible for the deaths of over 2 million people in that country, more than 1/2 a million in the last 2 years alone. How many of these people could have been saved if a...
  27. C

    Failure theories and uniaxial testing

    in all the failure theory we compare the stress in the structure to the yield stress in the uniaxial testing. How this is valid? for example in a structure the max normal stress is sigma x. and we compare this with the maximum normal stress in a uniaxial tension test. in vonmises also...
  28. R

    Failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

    i am, thus, attempting to understand the physics of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows. can please explain what i have found to be the cause of the final distruction: single-degree-of-freedom torsional flutter? or if you know anything else about this event, please explain!
  29. RadiationX

    Why Does L' Hopital's Rule Fail for This Limit?

    Why does L' Hopital's fail for this limit? Both the numerator and the denominator are continuous, and both are differentiable. \lim_{x\rightarrow\infty}\frac{x}{\sqrt{x^2 + 1 }} Is it "legal" to square the numerator and the denominator to get this...
  30. M

    Why Did the Connecting Rod in an Ultra-Light Vehicle Engine Fail During Testing?

    Hey Guys, Please help me out. Q. The connecting rod of a newly developed internal combustion engine for ultra-light vechicle failed catastrophically during testing, damaging the crankshaft and smashing the engine block into two. An emamination of the fracture surfaces revealed that the cause...
  31. M

    Why Did the Connecting Rod in an Ultra-Light Vehicle's Engine Fail?

    Hey Guys, Please help me out. Q. The connecting rod of a newly developed internal combustion engine for ultra-light vechicle failed catastrophically during testing, damaging the crankshaft and smashing the engine block into two. An emamination of the fracture surfaces revealed that the cause...
  32. wolram

    Is the Friedmann Equation Failing at Late Times?

    arXiv:astro-ph/0503715 v2 31 Mar 2005 Late time failure of Friedmann equation Alessio Notari* Physics Department, McGill University, 3600 University Road, Montr´eal, QC, H3A 2T8, Canada (Dated: March 31, 2005) It is widely believed that the assumption of homogeneity is a good zeroth...
  33. JasonRox

    Hard Drive Failure? Save my old computer.

    Hard Drive Failure?! Save my old computer. :) I have an older computer and it was working just yesterday, and I was just about to use it to do calculations 20 hours a day, but that doesn't look like it will happen. It's a Pentium I - 133Mhz computer, and it runs Windows 95. The current...
  34. Z

    Probability and chance of failure

    Ok, not really homework but I did not want to crowd general math. I have an experiment that has 96% chance of working. If I try it one hundred times what is the chance of one being a failure. I know with a one in two shot it is .5^2=.25 You now have a 25 percent chance of failure. Any...
  35. Integral

    Failure and saving face in the Asian Culture

    I have been told that one reason that Asians are not as quick to develop new technology is due to the loss of face that accompanies a failure in their culture. So they are reluctant to explore new avenues which have an uncertain outcome. Failure is not acceptable. In the western culture...
  36. Chronos

    Solving Bearing Cage Failure for 5+ Years

    I've worked on this problem for over 5 years without success. A machine I am familiar with has a chronic bearing failure problem. Specifically, the cage disintegrates after about 6 months. The bearing is used in a vibratory application. An eccentrically weight shaft impels a total mass of about...
  37. wolram

    The first failure of relativity?

    The first failure of relativity? http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0501176 The first failure of relativity. A new cosmological model "spacial condensation". This paper uses SN1a data to explain a universe with no dark energy and no acceleration.
  38. F

    Overcoming Failure: Advice for Students

    Dear friends, I don't know if it makes much sense to write about this but see if you can help me. I'm a second year undergraduate and I've been working a lot on Mechanics and waves. It's the subject I like the most but unfortunately I failed both exams we've taken so far. It's the first...
  39. S

    Calculating Beam Deflection and Failure Load: An Engineering Student's Dilemma

    I posted this again here because I just realized there was an engineering forum here too. I hope someone can help me because I'm going crazy! I'm an architecture student taking a required engineering class, and it's pretty challenging for me. So anyway, here's my problem. We were assigned to...
  40. S

    Calculating Beam Deflection and Failure Load for Plywood Beam Design

    Hey, this is my first post on this forum- I hope that someone can help me because I'm going crazy! I'm an architecture student taking a required engineering class, and it's pretty challenging for me. So anyway, here's my problem. We were assigned to design a beam made of luam plywood out of...
  41. Saint

    How avoid Diabetes, liver cancer, colon cancer and Kidney failure.

    How? What are the general causes to get them ?
  42. Ivan Seeking

    Hubble hit by instrument failure

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3545130.stm
  43. K

    Can a Helicopter Land Safely with Power Failure?

    Can a helicopter that has lost power to the main rotor blades land slowly enough so that nobody gets hurt? What would the terminal velocity of a freefalling helicopter be?
  44. E

    Understanding the Minimum Thickness for Preventing Overturning in Concrete Dams

    I'm having trouble understanding this question: For a freestanding concrete dam of uniform thickness t and height h, what minimum thickness is needed to prevent overturning? Do you need to add in atmospheric pressure for this last part? Explain. What do they mean by overturning exactly...
  45. U

    Hard Drive Failure: Is Power Cut Risky?

    Sometimes my electricity cuts out completely when I am running win2k pro (pesky coin meter) do you think this could damage a harddrive attached to my system, I have had one master boot go down on me already?
  46. J

    Failure to Start: Causes & Costs of Indy Cars

    Um, "Failure to start." I can kind of understand that in most Indianapolis 500 races cars suffer gearbox failures that put them out of the race. The RPM involved are much higher than for a street car. But many times I have seen cars towed away from the start line due to not starting. What is...
  47. T

    What has been your biggest FAILURE in Life? Admit it

    I think mine was not completing College. I had straight A's in the School of Forestry but my family obligations became such I couldn't continue. I really regret it and my Life has been much harder for it. Another is not as of yet having developed a working Time Machine. (probably won't...
  48. Ivan Seeking

    Psychic Weighs In on Electric Failure

    http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2003/8/19/212609.shtml
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