Monthly Archives: March 2011

Star Trek Analogies to Engineering Management

Posted on 30-March-2011 by mathscinotes

It amazes me how often my management experiences remind me of Star Trek episodes. A good example came up today. At extremely regular intervals, I must prepare budget reports that document the spending of my department. If I am late, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | 1 Comment

Battery State of Charge

Posted on 28-March-2011 by mathscinotes

Introduction Nearly all of our products are sold with an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) because customers need phone service for emergency voice calls, which we refer to as "lifeline service". Batteries are used for energy storage in all of our … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Electronics | Comments Off on Battery State of Charge

Quotes of the Day

Posted on 18-March-2011 by mathscinotes

Since I began sending emails, I have put quotes at the bottom of them. I change the quote for every email I send. Many people have said that they enjoy them. I thought I would include the most popular here. … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Quotes of the Day

Super Full Moon

Posted on 17-March-2011 by mathscinotes

One of the engineers just stopped by and told me that Saturday (19-Mar-2011) we will have a "Super Full Moon". This means we will have a full moon and it will be unusually large (14% wider). See this link for … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | 1 Comment

Dimensional Analysis and Olympic Rowing

Posted on 17-March-2011 by mathscinotes

Introduction I have always found dimensional analysis to be a very useful engineering tool. I recently watched a video Professor John Barrow of Gresham College who did a very nice job illustrating how dimensional analysis can be used to derive … Continue reading →

Posted in General Mathematics | 1 Comment

A Little Drive-By Math Incident

Posted on 16-March-2011 by mathscinotes

A quick math problem came by my cube today that was worth sharing. I was asked if there was a closed-form solution to Equation 1. Eq. 1 This problem does not have a closed form solution using the "everyday" functions, … Continue reading →

Posted in General Mathematics | Comments Off on A Little Drive-By Math Incident

Trigonometry, WWII Torpedoes, and a Museum Docent

Posted on 15-March-2011 by mathscinotes

Introduction I received a message a few weeks ago from a docent at an East Coast museum. He was using an article I wrote for the Wikipedia years ago to demonstrate an application of trigonometry to high school kids. In … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science and Technology, Underwater | 8 Comments

Neat Pictures from Mars and the Moon

Posted on 15-March-2011 by mathscinotes

One of my favorite blogs is written by Emily Lakadawalla for the Planetary Society. I was looking at some of her old material and found some pictures that I had never seen and I thought I would share with my … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | 1 Comment

Current Source Built with a Negative Resistance

Posted on 13-March-2011 by mathscinotes

Introduction I have seen quite a few schematics lately that are using an operational amplifier (opamp) configured as a negative resistor. I thought it would be interesting to analyze this circuit and show how it can provide an economical solution … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics | Comments Off on Current Source Built with a Negative Resistance

Engineering as a Social Activity

Posted on 13-March-2011 by mathscinotes

I haven't been able to blog the past week because I have been in Los Angeles at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC). I always enjoy going to this conference. After thinking about it, I enjoy it because … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Comments Off on Engineering as a Social Activity