The Geologist and the Engineer, in the year 1928

Sometimes, leafing through old books yields little gems.

The hydraulic processes of groundwater in nature cause great difficulties for calculations. To date, the geologist usually tends to rely on imagination [impression? understanding? concept? How the hell do you translate „Anschauung“?] only, and to disregard calculations completely. The mathematically trained engineer, on the other hand, often lacks the necessary understanding [imagination? etc.] of geologic structure. Especially in this field of groundwater science, progress can only be made by close collaboration of the geologist and the mathematically trained engineer.

W. Koehne (1928): Grundwasserkunde [Groundwater Science]. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart. p. 116–117.

Quite flattering how he denies geologists any mathematical skill. Hopefully this has improved since then. I, however, am a mathematically trained engineer who only needs to be acquainted with the understanding of geologic structure. 🙂

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