Author Archives: mathscinotes

Great Demonstration of Harmonic Motion

Posted on 5-January-2012 by mathscinotes

One of the engineers was sending this around today. I thought it was amazing.

Posted in General Science | Comments Off on Great Demonstration of Harmonic Motion

Nuclear Battery Math

Posted on 3-January-2012 by mathscinotes

My sons always tease me about my interest in space. In order to understand my interest in space, you need to understand what it was like being a boy during the 1960s. I had my own October Sky boyhood. I built rockets, read everything I could about space, built electronic circuits, and dreamt of someday being an engineer and space traveler. While the space traveler part didn't work out, I was fortunate in that I did everything else that I dreamt about it. I have met numerous engineers who are now in their 50s who had the same experiences. Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Electronics | 14 Comments

Worked PageRank Example

Posted on 2-January-2012 by mathscinotes

Introduction One of my sons asked me if I could work through a PageRank calculation example a couple of different ways (algebraic and iterative). It was an interesting exercise and I thought it would be worth documenting here. I used … Continue reading →

Posted in software | Tagged , | Comments Off on Worked PageRank Example

Bolide Meteor Sighting

Posted on 2-January-2012 by mathscinotes

I saw a bolide meteor while driving out to Montana last week. For those who are not familiar with bolide meteors, the Wikipedia has a nice description. The word bolide comes from the Greek βολίς (bolis) [2] which can mean … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | Comments Off on Bolide Meteor Sighting

Potentiometer Math

Posted on 22-December-2011 by mathscinotes

Introduction I have an application where a potentiometer may be useful. In fact, it would be useful if the potentiometer had a logarithmic resistance characteristic, which is also called an audio taper for reasons that I will cover later. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Meatball Math

Posted on 15-December-2011 by mathscinotes

Introduction I used to watch the television show "MASH" years ago. They would refer to quick procedures for patient stabilization as "meatball surgery." I recently encountered some "meatball math" as part of my engineering job. I call it "meatball" because … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Some Laser Basics

Posted on 14-December-2011 by mathscinotes

Introduction I am doing some interesting work with lasers this week. I thought it would be useful to provide some background on how we build and control lasers. We deploy a lot of lasers in outdoor applications, which means that … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics, Fiber Optics | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Baby Math

Posted on 14-November-2011 by mathscinotes

I was listening to a news program this weekend when I heard a journalist say that "4 million babies are born in the US every year." When I heard that statistic, I thought that I should be able to estimate … Continue reading →

Posted in General Mathematics | 1 Comment

Book Review: Solving Mathematical Problems By Terence Tao

Posted on 6-October-2011 by mathscinotes

While on my vacation to Ireland, I brought along a book called "Solving Mathematical Problems: A Personal Perspective" by Terence Tao. The book was written when Tao was a 15 year old mathematics prodigy competing in international mathematics competitions. Today at … Continue reading →

Posted in General Mathematics | Comments Off on Book Review: Solving Mathematical Problems By Terence Tao

Potato Math

Posted on 5-October-2011 by mathscinotes

Quote of the Day Being president is like running a cemetery -- you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening. - Bill Clinton Introduction I have taken a break from blogging to do some traveling. You may … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science and Technology | 2 Comments