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Author Archives: mathscinotes
Standards of Readability
Quote of the Day Do not forget what is being a sailor when you become a captain. — African proverb I had a discussion with one of my engineers this morning about documentation and our company's standard of readability. When … Continue reading
Posted in Technical Writing
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How Big is Phobos When Seen from the Surface of Mars?
The thought of alien worlds with multiple moons has always intrigued me. I am listening to the audio book "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I downloaded the audio book from Libravox, which provides free downloads of readings from classic works. Normally, I do not listen to much science fiction, but I watched the movie "John Carter" and there was something I liked about the story. Continue reading
Calculator to Select Connector for Joining Wires
I have written dozens (hundreds?) of small Mathcad function to help me in my daily work. Since I plan to teach another Mathcad class soon, I am gathering examples that might be good to use as application examples. Yesterday, I was working with a customer on selecting wires for supplying power to our products. I used an old calculator that I have decided to show my students in the class. I will discuss how I used this calculator here. Continue reading
Posted in Electronics
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Timing Differences Between Battleship Guns During a Salvo
Quote of the Day The better person you become, the better person you attract. — Pinterest. This is also true for management. I was looking at this picture (Figure 1) of the USS Missouri firing a six-gun salvo and I … Continue reading
Posted in Naval History
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Battleship Guns and Danger Space
I have been reading a couple of excellent books about battleships ("Naval Firepower" and "Guns at Sea"). During my reading, I have encountered the term "Danger Space" that appears with nearly every table describing the large naval guns. Of course, I had no idea what danger space was when I began investigating it. It turns out that danger space describes an important metric for battleship guns and it is worthwhile documenting what I have learned about it here. Continue reading
TSA Has No Sense of Humor
I was having a discussion with some other engineering managers when I heard the following travel horror story. Engineering managers are always talking about Bills of Materials (BOMs), which we pronounce as "bombs". An engineer was on his phone at an airport and was discussing part problems with a contract manufacturer. He used the term "bomb" many times during that conversation. Another passenger heard his use of the term "bomb" and turned him in to TSA, who promptly apprehended him. He then spent the next several hours explaining to the nice TSA people what a bill of materials is. While the TSA folks were very nice, he did miss his plane and got to spend an enjoyable evening in Little Rock, Arkansas. Did you know many things there are named after Bill and Hillary Clinton? This engineer got to visit a number of these places. Continue reading
Conversion Cost Mathematics in Mathcad
Introduction Normally, I use Excel for analyzing financial data. Today, I encountered a financial problem for which Mathcad seemed appropriate-- there was a bit of algebra involved. Let's see what you think ... Background Before I can state my problem, … Continue reading
Posted in Financial
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A Couple of Examples of Characteristic Impedance Calculations in Mathcad
Introduction I have been doing some work that involves computing the characteristic impedances of cables. The work has involved creating some tables in Mathcad for comparison with tables from a government specification. Since I am always looking for real-life computations … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics
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