At 02:53 PM 4/25/02 -0500, you wrote:
>All very true in every respect.  Also all a bit much to ask of a two-year
>undergrad intern candidate, who will probably be a little awestruck and
>probably pretty nervous is it is when you ask the question.  The OP is
>looking for a college student (read "lab grunt"), not a chief of
>engineering.  And the poor grunt is 99% likely not going to know anything
>about post office loops, shunt testers or any of the rest.  That comes
>with experience, which said starry-eyed applicant will lack.

Unless, of course, said starry-eyed applicant has been reading the PICLIST
for a while :-)



>Just my own humble opinion.
>
>Dale
>--
>"Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that
>curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly."
>           - Arnold Edinborough
>
>
>On Thu, 25 Apr 2002, Peter L. Peres wrote:
>
> > The electrically correct answer was given by Ray Gardiner but the purpose
> > of the question is to find out what the candidate would do. Asking for a
> > ruler is legit. Assumption that the mV scale is not accurate can be made.
> > You could ask for a ruler and just measure 60 mm of wire and crimp with
> > +/-0.75 mm precision. You could say that you need a 4 wire shunt for this
> > (you don't really) and show how to do it. You could ask whether there is a
> > more accurate ohmmeter available. You could ask whether there is a lower
> > value precision resistor available. You could notice that the current must
> > be switched for short times in the 10W resistor to avoid creep and that it
> > should be checked before and after since it is used at max spec power.
> >
> > You could say that this job is best done by buying a $5000 shunt-testing
> > instrument or a $5 'post office loop' (this is an old shunt used by
> > British phone technicians I think - I got it from a book, not sure about
> > the name). You could ask how many shunts will eventually be needed, and
> > whether they could be outsourced if many (and why).
> >
> > The question is not a math skills test, in that there may be several
> > answers, and maybe giving the elaborate and correct electrical solution is
> > not the answer that will give the highest mark. Seeing 'sideways' and a
> > certain amount of nonlinear thinking is the kind of skill that makes
> > co-workers co-workers and not co-drags imho.
>
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