RE: Geoff's Bee (bugger all Audi content) and a TQW brake question

[Geoff Jenkins <jenkinsg@pilot.msu.edu>]

DUBIOUS APIARIAN BIT:

Dear Gross,

Sorry, but, um... I think you mis-read my point.

The point was precisely that which you re-make below, i.e. that bumble bees 
_do_ fly, in theory and in practice. The theory which states that they can fly 
is logically coherent and valid to the case of an ornithopter, and hence by 
extension a bumble bee.

The theory which states that they can't fly is also logically coherent, but is 
invalid, i.e., it's being applied to an inappropriate problem.

That (besides being an entertaining piece of apocrypha) is why the bumble-bee 
story is still taught to (at least some) physicists. Not to show that "physics 
can be wrong", but to show that "correct physics inappropiately applied can be 
wrong" (at least that's how the English and the Russians justify its use). This 
is exactly what I was trying to demonstrate to Scott. I'm agnostic on the 
question of the logicality of his model of the Torsen, but I do believe that 
the attempt to leap from a one-line model to any form of predictive power 
concerning actual road conditions will prove as unreliable as M. Magnan's 
aerobiological foray, and for the exact same reason: the lack of an 
understanding of the scientific method.

I think you may have read my piece (more methodological than epistemological 
really, but the heuristic effect is probably the same either way) as meaning 
that aerodynamics cannot explain the flight of a bumble bee. My point, rather, 
was that the aerodynamics of (as I recall a plain fixed wing) simple model will 
not suffice, no matter how coherent they may be, when applied to a more complex 
phenomenon than lies within their domain of accuracy. That's precisely why I 
described the inappropriate model as "_usually_ accurate" (emphasis added). 
Apologies for any ambiguities that remain.

TQW BRAKES BIT:

I'm preparing to get nice new front brakes for my S4, and a lister has asked 
for the old ones. Does anyone know whether (a) the front calipers, disks etc 
from a '94 S4 will fit an '86 tqw and (b) would it really be an upgrade to his 
(stock?) brakes, or just a waste of shipping charges?

I used to rather like bumble bees. If this stays on list beyond this point, I 
may develop animosity towards the little sods.

Geoff