Engineering & Science Mistakes & Myths

There are plenty of trite old saying about failure and how sometimes it is necessary to fail in order to ultimately succeed. After all, people will say, Thomas Edison tried a couple thousand different alloys for his electric incandescent light bulb (now ruled to be evil and a destroyer of the Earth) before finally arriving at tungsten. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. No pain, no gain. That sort of thing. Personally, I hate pain and have never felt like I had more character because of having suffered pain. First pass success is my preference on everything.

If there is a parallel philosophy useful to illustrate how dumb it is to extol any virtues that failure might have, it is a quote from George Patton regarding the oft-touted nobility of dying for one's country: "Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

17th Street Canal
The 17th Street Canal Levee was breached over a two city-block wide length after Hurricane Katrina. Investigations suggest the breach was due to faulty design, rather than storm and water conditions more severe than the levee and storm wall system of the canal was intended to survive. Information from Wikipedia.

Bad Science
This page is maintained by Alistair B. Fraser in an attempt to sensitize teachers and students to examples of the bad science often taught in schools, universities, and offered in popular articles and even textbooks.

Boston Molasses Disaster
On January 15, 1919, a large molasses tank burst and a wave of molasses 8-15 ft high, moving at approximately 35 mph through the streets of Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150 people. After the disaster it was revealed that Arthur Jell, the construction overseer, neglected basic safety tests. The tank leaked so badly after being filled with molasses, that it was painted brown to hide the leaks. Information from Wikipedia.


Citigroup Center
During construction, changes were made that led a structurally unsound building. Structural engineer William LeMessurier discovered a potentially fatal flaw in the skyscraper's construction - the building's bolted joints could not withstand 70-mile-per-hour wind gusts at certain angles. To correct the flaw, a construction crew welded two-inch-thick steel plates over each of the skyscraper's 200 bolted joints, creating a structurally sound building. Information from Wikipedia.

Engineering Disasters and Learning from Failure
Information from Department of Materials Science and Engineering, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Firestone 500 Steel-Belted Radials
The Firestone 500 steel-belted radials separated from the tread, typically at high speeds, from water seeping under the tread, causing the belting to rust and the treading to separate. Information from Wikipedia.

Goof Gallery
A collection of mistakes made by early scientists and artists when trying to represent extinct (and sometimes living) organisms.

Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse
This major disaster occurred on July 17, 1981 in Kansas City, MO, and killed 114 people and injured more than 200 others. The walkway was designed by Jack D. Gillum and Associates, with the steel rods for the walkway being manufactured by Havens Steel Company. Due to miscommunications between the two firms, the resulting walkway could only bear 30% of the minimum load. Information from Wikipedia.

Mars Climate Orbiter
Findings indicated that one team used English units (e.g., inches, feet and pounds) while the other used metric units for a key spacecraft operation. The result of this error was the loss of the spacecraft.

Northeast Blackout of 1965
The Northeast Blackout of 1965 was a significant electrical power outage on November 9, 1965, affecting around 25 million people who were left without electricity for up to twelve hours. A small surge of power tripped a relay, disabling a main power line and causing a cascade of outages. Plant after plant automatically shut down as they experienced load imbalances. Information from Wikipedia.

Quebec Bridge
On August 29, 1907 the south arm and part of the central section of the bridge collapsed, killing 75 workers and injuring a dozen others. Calculations made early in the planning stages were never properly checked when the design was finalized, and the actual weight of the bridge was far in excess of its carrying capacity. The dead load was too heavy. Information from Wikipedia.
Regalskeppet Vasa
Regalskeppet Vasa was a Swedish ship built for King Gustavus Adolphus. In 1628, the Vasa capsized on its maiden voyage, sailing for only less than a nautical mile. The original plans called for one closed gundeck, but the Vasa was finished with two, at the request of the king. The Vasa had inadequate ballast to counter her height. It has been suggested that if the Vasa's center of gravity had been 2-4 inches (5-10 cm) lower, she would not have capsized.

"Science Myths" in K-6 Textbooks
and Popular Culture

An extensive list of links and articles.

Skeptical Inquirer
Separating fact from myth in the flood of occultism and pseudoscience on the scene today. This dynamic magazine, published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, tells you what the scientific community knows about claims of the paranormal, as opposed to the sensationalism often presented by the press, television, and movies.

Silver Bridge

The Silver Bridge was an eyebar chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and was named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio over the Ohio River.

On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed while it was choked with rush hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. Investigation of the wreckage pointed to the cause of the collapse being the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain, due to a small defect only 0.1 inches (2.54 mm) deep.

St. Francis Dam
The dam was built under the supervision of William Mulholland, a self-taught civil engineer. Just before midnight on March 12, 1928, the dam crumbled. The resulting flood killed more than 400 people. Information from Wikipedia.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge
The bridge collapsed on November 7, 1940, due to the wind causing a physical phenomenon known as mechanical resonance. The bridge’s collapse is often used as lesson in the necessity to consider both aerodynamics and resonance effects in structural and civil engineering.  Information from Wikipedia.


Teton Dam  (Wikipedia page)
The Teton Dam, 44 miles northeast of Idaho Falls in southeastern Idaho, failed abruptly on June 5, 1976, less than a year into operation. It released nearly 300,000 acre feet of water, then flooded farmland and towns downstream with the eventual loss of 14 lives, directly or indirectly, and with a cost estimated to be nearly $1 billion.

The Worst: Stupid Engineering Mistakes
From Wired Magazine.

Torrey Canyon Supertanker Disaster
The 'Torrey Canyon' struck Pollard's Rock in the Seven Stones reef, England, on 18 March, 1967. 31,000,000 gallons of oil leaked from the ship and spread along the sea between England and France, killing most of the marine life it touched. A contributing design factor was that the ship was nearly unmaneuverable.

Whoops! Blunders and Mistakes of
Science and Engineering

Documents mistakes which are the result of misapplication or ignorance of science and engineering principles. Readers are invited to send us more of this kind of thing, or to provide additional information about the ones already here, by Donald Simanek.






Webmaster: Kirt Blattenberger, BSEE, UVM 1989