"Wisdom begins in wonder" – Socrates
Category: Mathematics
Risk Assessment
08/30/19
“How can we assess risk?”
If phenomenon has a possibility of occurring with malignant effects it is classified as a risk. The origin of the risk, its spread, and its malignant effects can all be assessed. However, these all can be brought together under a complete Risk Assessment, which gives a holistic and quantitative overview of the entire picture.
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Consequence Assessment
08/29/19
“How can we assess the consequences of a risk?”
Risks are something that come in every engineering system, whether it be the probability that a dam overflows or a forest fire breaks out. However, how can we assess what will be the effects of the mishap on the surrounding community? Well, we can perform a Consequence Assessment to quantify or categorize how harmful things will be.
Release Assessment
08/27/19
“How can we analyze the probability of a risk factor breaking out?”
Risk is one of the most important components in infrastructure projects, whether it be related to the structural integrity of a bridge or the temperature levels of a nuclear power plant. If something goes wrong, it could end up costing billions of dollars. So how can we analyze and quantify the release of such events. Well, we can perform something called a Release Assessment, which integrates every possible factor that could lead to failure.
Reliability Function
08/26/19
“How can we model how long something is expected to survive?”
One of the most fundamental laws of physics is that the total amount of entropy can only increase. Consequently, everything in the physical domain will wear out over time and eventually no longer function. Since the survival of many projects and people are responsibilities of many engineers and medical practitioners, these professions are interested in how long things are expected to last. This can be accomplished using a Reliability Function, (also known as a survival function in medicine), which models the statistical lifetime of an object of interest as a cumulative distribution function. These can play out in any number of ways, but the starting point must always be equal to 100% and the endpoint zero.
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Systematic Risk Assessment
05/17/19
“How can we assess risk on the systematic scale?”
Risk assessment can be done for a wide variety of topics. But if one wants to apply it on a high-level, such as analyzing power-plants or bridges, then one will need to apply Systematic Risk Assessment, which can be much more challenging than component level risk analysis.
Fire Risk Analysis
05/16/19
“How can we analyze fire risk?”
Property catching on fire can be very dangerous. Whether it be a single building or a transmission line, the damage can be an order of magnitude worse than expected. Because of this, many property owners use risk analysis methods to keep their investments safe. This Fire Risk Analysis can be accomplished through the amalgamation of a multitude of methods, such as analyzing historical dire data, on-site building inspections, and material analysis.
Risk Analysis
05/15/19
“How can we analyze risk?”
Every engineering, business, or policy action has some sort of risk attached. Whether it be installing a wind turbine or funding a renewable energy startup, something could go wrong. As a result, before institutions will make a Risk Analysis to see if taking such an action is rational. Risk analysis can be performed in a multitude of different ways, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
This is a continuation of last week’s post.
Isaac's Science Blog 