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Re: Engineering Newsletter
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.