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by paulyg 3591 days ago
Wecome to mechanical engineering folks.
1 comments

A mechanical engineering professor at our institution loves to ask the uninitiated what the difference between the two is. His answer, "It's the intent or purpose for which it's being used."
From the linked document, it sounds like the key difference is whether it's tightened by the head (screw) or by torquing down a nut (bolt). Seems like an adequate definition, but then I don't work for the government, so I guess somebody, somewhere, needs 17 more pages of guidance.

Parenthetically, if you want to get a Ronald Reagan elected over a Jimmy Carter, this is how you get a Ronald Reagan elected over a Jimmy Carter. You wave a document like this around in front of a TV camera.

> Parenthetically, if you want to get a Ronald Reagan elected over a Jimmy Carter, this is how you get a Ronald Reagan elected over a Jimmy Carter. You wave a document like this around in front of a TV camera.

That this can work only makes me sad about the intelligence level and sanity of the population. Documents like these don't get crafted because the government has nothing better to do - it's usually a hotfix applied to a hotfix. There's a law, then there's some "entrepreneur" who uses a technicality to get around its spirit, and then the govt needs to patch the exploit. Rinse, repeat. It's not difficult to understand, but sadly, I don't expect most people to do so before outrage instinct kicks in.

And yet it never occurs to those on the left to ask if the real problem lies in the underlying premise ("There's a law.")