Square Peg.....Round Hole

Being as how I am the only one of my friends who isn't some sort of engineer, I am often asked my opinion on a variety of topics just to see how another field would try and solve an issue. Most often my way is vastly superior and much more effecient. But recently I came across a problem where that wasn't so.

Square Peg...Round Hole. (more specifically a square peg that is just barely too small to fit through the round hole)

So the engineer immediately says "Lathe!". I was dumbfounded. That was the perfect solution. In minutes you could completely alter the landscape of whole situation from one mind numbing jagged mountainous mass of angles and forces, to the wide open flat planes of Round Peg....Round Hole.

I was embarassed. Being a geneticist, I had never thought of altering the pieces directly, all i could hope for was to steer them in a desired a direction and let nature do the dirty work for me.

My solution was to force the square peg and round hole to interbreed. I am not sure about the genetics that encode square vs. round, but i figured after millions of years and generations I would either end up with one gene being dominant over the other and having all squares or all rounds, or there would be some sort of co-dominant population of squarish pegs and holes with rounded corners.

either way, this time I lost. Just for that, I am not cloning any of your children or pets, you math-geeky engineers with all your forces, and moments, and tensions.

*I am a sore loser*