All Things Being Equal

“Ceteris Paribus”

This is a Latin phrase that means “All Things Being Equal”.

Humans have an amazing capacity to adapt, modify, tweak and re-invent when faced with a challenge. The image below is of the staggered tire diameters of a race car. This form of racing is on small oval tracks where the car is almost always turning left. Someone figured out that staggering the tire diameters helps make the car turn left on its own. Of course, you wouldn’t do this on a drag car going in straight line.

In the absence of long straightaways, tire stagger works. 

In milling, we put a lot of emphasis on “Ceteris Paribus” by making tool assemblies concentric and balanced, yet we introduce unequal elements by varying the pitch or helix angle. Why? Because faced with chatter and not being able to measure the system’s frequency someone tried modifying the endmill and it worked in their machine with the toolholder they were using.

In the absence of dynamic testing, teeth stagger works. 

Does this mean if we tap-test a proportionally spaced tool we can find performance equal or greater than the variable pitch/helix? Again, “Ceteris Paribus”. If the same beneficial advanced substrates, edge prep, coatings, post-coating polish and corner breaks/radii were applied, the answer would be yes.
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