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Re: Ben



Philip Bakelaar wrote:
> 
> Well, hello everyone. I just thought I would write a quick letter saying a
> few things.
> 
> First off, I hope you all don't mind a young kid like me being part of your
> group, but I
> promise I won't bother you.

Ahh, to be young again.  ;)  

Hi Ben, and welcome.  New ideas aren't a bother.  


> 
> Secondly, if there is any way I can participate in this group, please let me
> know. One of the
> few things I can maybe help you out with is web site hosting. I mean, if you
> need any
> space or anything, just let me know.
> 

We've been having some discussion of this prior to your arrival.  I will be posting 
another letter later tonight (It's around 6:30 am here in Minneapolis, MN)


> And third, just so all of you know, I am a computer programmer, and while
> for the time
> being I am limited to DOS, I am a fairly good programmer. If anyone would like
> anything done, like putting an equationinto a program or anything... well, I
> guess most of you
> can program or know someone who does, but if maybe you don't have time or
> something, I almost
> always have time each day to do a little programming, so... just an offer.
> 

Yeah, I think it's safe to say that most of can program, but don't have much time.
I think this might be a useful outlet for some creative energy.  I think the time
and distance program has been generally agreed to as being "broken"
the url is:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/lunar/prog7.html

I would like to see a program that could compute ship-time and earth-time for a
relativistic flight given:


distance to cover (one-way)
acceleration in (m/s or G)
top cruising speed (use none for a constant thrust mission)

Make the input a html form, (maybe write the code in JAVA?) 
you can research the formulas yourself, or ask Tim or Steve

> I looked over a past discussions letter Zenon sent me, and I just want to
> say that although
> right now the equations are over my head, I will try my hardest to figure
> them out, so if I don't participate in conversation that much yet, please
> forgive me. Hopefully soon I will at least be
> able to participate to some degree.

Well, don't feel bad. I'm about twice your age and have had the benefit of
college level calculus (don't ask about the grades ;) ) and the math is still
above my head.  As for participating, you just did.  even if you can't do the math,
you still can help in other areas, and I'm sure you'll get the math eventually.

> 
> Well, I guess I wrote too much, sorry about that. One thing more I have to

Hey guys, should we tell him about Brian and the great E-mail avalanche?

> add is that I am very
> good at web research and so if anyone would like me to research anything,
> let me know. Basically,

Okay, how about any web articles on Masers?  or beamed power.

> Well, I guess I bored you all to death by now. Thanx for reading.

It's only boring when you say you can't participate, because you just did! :)
Kevin