[ihc] Mathematical ponderings, used to be Max sustained winds to drive in?

[John Hofstetter <hofs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sep 12, 2004, at 6:20 PM, Dan Nees wrote:

> Interesting science study here. If you are in a Scout doing 50 MPH,
> heading into a sustained 50 MPH wind, what would your effective speed
> be, and how far would you actually go?
>    Plus, factor in the air drag of a large brick, aka the shape of the
> Scout, and I would imagine your effective speed is reduced even more.
> Could you effectively reduce it to a negative number? What would happen
> if you had a knob on the dash to increase or decrease the drag of the
> Scout? What if you had a knob to reduce/increase PI? (Wait, that is
> another conversation?)
> On Sun, 2004-09-12 at 19:38, Ryan Moore wrote:
> > What is the max sustained winds I should be willing to drive the 
> > diesel in?
> > (I'm specifying this truck becuase wheelbase is important).
Made me giggle Dan. Thanks.

I'm not sure if the Pi discussion preceded Ryan's participation in the 
digest, or not, but regardless it was funny to me.

I don't know how much math you had in school, Dan, but both those 
calculations give support to the value of the Calculus. Did any 
digesters see the show on PBS on the document Archimedes did in 300 BC 
in which he demonstrated that he had discovered the Calculus. The show 
was mostly about trying to read his writings beneath the later writings 
on top of his that some monks had done 1700 years later, but I was much 
more astounded by his mathematical discovery than by the reading of his 
document.

Sir Issac was a "come-lately" after all.

John