Re: Engineering Newsletter

[Kevin C Houston <hous0042@maroon.tc.umn.edu>]

On Sun, 26 Nov 1995, Timothy van der Linden wrote:

> ReplyTo   : The Nitwit 

BTW, in english, a nitwit is a stupid person.  (someone with the brains 
of a nit <a small insect>)  in so naming myself, I admit my previous errors

> ReplyFrom : Nitpicker Timothy
> 
> Hi Steve, I'm sorry to have frustrated you.

actually, it's Kevin, I know it can be confusing when three or more 
people are engaged in debate, but try to keep us straight.  It's not nice 
to insult Steve's intelligence like that.

> The reason I'm doing that is because you are always finding these wonderful
> solutions and I can't stand that. :) No, not really of course, but it is
> really difficult, as we all know by now, to find a method to harnas these
> amounts of energy. I guess, if there was a easy and cheap way we would have
> found it by now. We all are hoping to find some ingenious way to get around
> all the problems at once, so all solutions are welcome. But also there is a
> great possibility that these solutions will fail.
> 
> The only thing I can write is, let the new ideas come and try to explain why
> you think they work.
> 
> Before you read any further I have to warn you :)
> 
> TAKE SOME VALIUM TABLETS AND TRY TO RELAX...
> 
> >see my web page
> >http://www.umn.edu/nlhome/m056/hous0042/asimov.html
> >for an idea that is consistant with Steve and Timothy's objections.
> 
> I almost dare not saying it but, how accurate is your calculator?
> 

not very, considering i lost it (or it was stolen), I've been using EXCEL 
for my calculations, also, I rounded the actual angle of the sail 
elements from 21.47 to 21 

> Let me recalculate the values of the various components:
> 
> a=55.47 m/s^2 (purple)    b=27.73 m/s^2 (red)
> 
> Purple x-comp = a sin( 21) =  19.88  (you got  51.62)
> Purple y-comp = a cos( 21) =  51.79  (you got  20.3023)

it is possible i mixed these two up, and _wrote_ a sin, when i _meant_ a 
cos.  I will have to check the spreadsheet and the web page.  Other than 
that, I think the other errors are from rounding.

> Red    x-comp = b cos(-48) = -18.55  (you got -18.9)
> Red    y-comp = b sin(-48) = -20.61  (you got -20.3021)
> 
> I checked all cos and sin formulas in the drawing and all seem to be OK, the
> only things that are wrong are the final decimal numbers.

I will check that and get back to you.