{"id":8366,"date":"2020-06-23T12:51:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T15:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=8366"},"modified":"2021-01-15T18:00:47","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T22:00:47","slug":"can-you-calibrate-a-forensic-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/23\/can-you-calibrate-a-forensic-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you “calibrate” a forensic expert?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happens when we calibrate<\/em> something, and can the procedure apply to a person?\u00a0 For example, a forensic expert?\u00a0 Does it happen unbeknownst to an expert?<\/p>\n

I said in a recent blog that this happens to an expert<\/span> when he visually examines the site of a failure or accident in the built environment – he gets calibrated<\/em> to the site.<\/span> (Ref. 1)<\/p>\n

Then I began to think about it.<\/p>\n

This description of a visual examination came to me when I remembered hearing years ago about an American engineer asking to have some pits dug at a site that he was visually examining in Newfoundland, so he could “…get calibrated to the site”<\/em>.\u00a0 The phrase resonated with me at the time.<\/p>\n

This was George F. Sowers, a professional engineer with an international reputation in foundation and geotechnical engineering. (Ref. 2)\u00a0 All of us in this field of practice knew of him.\u00a0 This was a serious foundation problem if Dr. Sowers was called in.<\/p>\n

Still, I thought, I better check the meaning of calibrate<\/em> in the event Dr. Sowers stretched it a little.<\/p>\n

The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives several definitions of calibrate<\/em>, one of the last in a list of five is most applicable to Sowers use of the word:<\/p>\n

“…to adjust precisely for a particular function, e.g., calibrate a thermometer”<\/p>\n

Sowers was getting himself\u00a0adjusted precisely to the site<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>so he could function in a particular way<\/span> –\u00a0<\/em>as the forensic engineer investigating the cause of the problem at this particular site.<\/p>\n

You might say this is wandering away from a dictionary’s meaning. (Ref. 3)\u00a0 I don’t think so.\u00a0 One thing I’ve learned blogging on the nature and methods of forensic engineering in the past eight years is that words are taking on new shades of meaning all the time.<\/p>\n

Using the word calibrate<\/em> in a recent blog to describe what happens during a visual site assessment just came out of me from deep down inside.\u00a0 It was natural.\u00a0 Also knowing it was used this way by a quite reputable and experienced engineer years ago.\u00a0 And it’s supported by Merriam-Webster.<\/p>\n

The word calibrate<\/span> does suggest preciseness<\/span>, and that’s a big element in a visual assessment of a site<\/span> – you can’t plan a forensic investigation of a failure or accident until you’ve seen the site.\u00a0 Think, a picture<\/em> (seeing something) is worth a 1,000 words<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Can you “calibrate”<\/em> a forensic expert?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 It happens as a matter of course when s\/he does a visual assessment of a site before commenting on how to determine the cause of the accident or failure, if more investigation seems necessary.\u00a0 And a degree of expert calibration occurs when s\/he does a virtual<\/em> visual assessment.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. COVID-19 and an initial forensic task aka a visual site assessment, sans social distancing<\/em>.\u00a0 Posted June 1, 2020<\/li>\n
  2. Sowers, George F., Introductory Soil Mechanics and Foundations: Geotechnical Engineering,<\/em> 4th edition, MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc, New York<\/li>\n
  3. Family Word Finder, A New Thesaurus of Synonyms and Antonyms in Dictionary Form<\/em>, 896 pg. Reader’s Digest in association with Stuart B. Flexner 1975<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    (Posted by Eric E. Jorden, M.Sc., P.Eng. Consulting Professional Engineer, Forensic Engineer, Geotechnology Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada ejorden@eastlink.ca<\/span><\/strong>)\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What happens when we calibrate something, and can the procedure apply to a person?\u00a0 For example, a forensic expert?\u00a0 Does it happen unbeknownst to an expert? I said in a recent blog that this happens to an expert when he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8366"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8995,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions\/8995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}