Randomness III

Mad78 · October 29, 2009

Yeah how is that job going T? Not too hard?

DarthTofu · October 29, 2009

Three calls in a row from high school students asking me how to add and subtract fractions; not too bad. My "toughest" two questions were questions that other people sent me.

Question one (which was really, really easy): A bullet with a given mass is fired at a block of wood, which also has a given mass. The two stick together, and the bullet falls off of a table of a given height, and strikes the ground a given distance from the edge of the table. How fast was the bullet traveling? (Use kinematics to determine the blocks initial velocity in the x direction, then use law of conservation of momentum to determine the bullet's speed).

Question two (which had more to it): Determine how many electrons are going through a certain resistor per second for a circuit consisting of two resistors, with a 10 V battery. (Find current and divide by the elemental charge- 1.6*10^-19) It's pretty easy, yeah. It particularly helps that I've got a deal going with a Chem E- she'll take all of my chemistry calls, no complaints or questions asked, and I'll take all of her physics calls.

Master_Xan · October 30, 2009

Circuit with only two resistors? Pretty simple circuit... not hard to find the current whatsoever. Then again, I am taking a computer engineering course right now, and all I've done for the last two months is find voltages and currents in various circuits... I just hope for your sake you don't get into network analysis. Especially if you have to delve into the differential calculus side of network analysis.

DarthTofu · November 1, 2009

Differential equations aren't that bad; I'm in Diff Eq 1 right now, and it's an easy A for me, assuming I don't miss another day of class (I've slept through all of one class, ten minutes of another class, and all but the last ten minutes of a third.... forgot to set my alarm for those days. )

So far as circuits go, next quarter is when it gets to be a bit tougher- I'm in Diff Eq 2, which will still deal with some circuitry (LRC circuits, in particular; I'm pretty sure I've gotten those down at this point, though), and I'm taking my Electrical Systems class, which shan't be too pleasant, though from what I hear the labs are at least quickish, and I don't have to do ****ing error propagation (my least favorite part of any lab). At any rate, that's all of the electrical systems I'll have classes dealing with- I'm majoring in Mechanical and Civil Engineering (yes, it was entirely necessary that those be capitalized), so I don't do a whole lot with electricity beyond, "This motor can exert this much force for this much power- go!"

Master_Xan · November 2, 2009

I'm a CIT major, but I'm taking a basic computer engineering class just for the background. The circuitry stuff is pretty cool, though I have a hard time with some of the number crunching. Mostly because I don't ever put in the work I should

Mad78 · November 2, 2009

I thought I'd share a picture of my Halloween costume with you guys

DarthTofu · November 8, 2009

Nice costume, Mad.

So I just recently started watching Firefly. Yeah, it's freaking awesome. I'm trying to limit myself to just watching two episodes for today, but I kinda want to watch a third, now...

Master_Xan · November 9, 2009

I loved that show. The movie was pretty good too. I've always wondered why the series was pulled off the air...

DarthTofu · November 9, 2009

Because Fox isn't particularly bright; they aired the show with the eleventh episode first, then proceeded to display them all in a hodge-podge, uncollected mess of episodes. The series has to be seen in sequence, or it makes little to no sense. Well, the first three episodes kinda do, at any rate.

Mad78 · November 9, 2009

Clearly one of the best Scifi series ever. Always was very sad that Fox pulled it off. The movie too was awesome!

Evaders99 · November 10, 2009

Movie was not as good as the show. Lots of explanation of plot via dialogue, which I guess is due to trying to fit a complicated universe into a two-hour movie. Joss Whedon's works are some of the best, if given the time to develop their plot and characters. Firefly was sadly cut while in its prime.

DarthTofu · November 10, 2009

.... so remember when I was all like "I'm gonna limit myself to two episodes per day?" Yeah, didn't happen. I just finished Out of Gas, which I think may be my favorite episode so far. Jaynetown was pretty good, too. Gotta say- my favorite two characters are Jayne and Kaylee. The two are polar opposites, but freaking awesome.

... and River correcting Pastor's Bible was pretty epic, too.

DarthTofu · November 13, 2009

So I just watched Serenity. Spoilers follow, if you haven't seen it before:

I can't believe they killed Sheppard Book, Wash, and the guy from Numb3rs! Whyyyyyyyyy? Wash was such a great character; I can't believe that they killed him! He was so great, and Sheppard Book was one of my favorite characters, too! Plus- hey, it was Charlie, from Numb3rs. All in all, I can't complain that much about it, I guess, but I still am so sad that they stopped the show, and that they closed themselves off to a continuation of it eventually. That show deserved to do much, much better than it did.

Mad78 · November 13, 2009

I have to agree with you but that is one of the hard rules of Television. Its often some of the best shows to be that never make it.

DarthTofu · November 16, 2009

Question 4, part c of my Physics III final: What is direction of the induced current in the ring, given that the current is given by B0*sin(omega*t), and is perpendicular to the plane of the conducting loop?

Answer: The coin landed heads-up (see diagram), therefor the current is in the clockwise direction. QED.

Edited November 18, 2009 by DarthTofu