Greg Egan on Nostr: A fascinating and disturbing look at how finite-element engineering simulations, ...

A fascinating and disturbing look at how finite-element engineering simulations, though potentially very accurate, are nonetheless sometimes wildly wrong thanks to old/misused code, and dodgy shortcuts that Gilbert Strang calls “variational crimes”.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-math-of-cracks-can-make-planes-bridges-and-dams-safer/