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Re: green stars

From jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com>
Newsgroups rec.arts.sf.written, sci.physics
Subject Re: green stars
Date 2015-10-05 13:02 +0000
Organization "Have EDDT, will travel"
Message-ID <PM0005215B50CBB539@aca40732.ipt.aol.com> (permalink)
References (8 earlier) <560E3D7D.3AA6@ix.netcom.com> <mur018$5ei$1@panix3.panix.com> <nvp65o.1ID2@kithrup.com> <PM00052148602F2733@aca41f97.ipt.aol.com> <nvpG9J.21DC@kithrup.com>

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article <PM00052148602F2733@aca41f97.ipt.aol.com>,
> jmfbahciv  <See.above@aol.com> wrote:
>>Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>>> In article <mur018$5ei$1@panix3.panix.com>,
>>> William December Starr <wdstarr@panix.com> wrote:
>>>>In article <nvnzI5.15Dv@kithrup.com>,
>>>>djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) said:
>>>>
>>>>> I managed to get an A in my one physics course (Physics 10, aka
>>>>> Bonehead Physics), but I do not understand anything past Newton.
>>>>> I haven't had to.  I take it on faith.
>>>>
>>>>Did you drop a '1' off the end of that, or was the course really
>>>>"Physics [ten]?"
>>>
>>> Yes.
>>>
>>> Its official title, I think, was "physics for Humanities Majors".
>>> Everybody enrolled in the College of Letters and Sciences, who
>>> wasn't actually majoring in a science, had to take it.  In a
>>> similar way, those majoring in math or sciences, if they couldn't
>>> pass a basic entrance exam in written English (in which case
>>> they'd take the standard lower-division English courses like the
>>> rest of us) would take English 10, which of course was called
>>> Bonehead English.
>>>
>>> Mind you, this was nearly sixty years ago; I don't know what they
>>> do now.
>>>
>>When I went to college, we were required to take an Honors Physics
>>course which was real physics without using calculus.  The art
>>majors were not interested in the course until they figured out
>>it helped them with their art which was mostly drawing and
>>painting.
>
> We did not, thank heaven, have to use calculus.  Just algebra.
> At which I was not very good either.
>
> I know I've told this story before, but it's been a while.  If
> you remember it from last time, hit 'n' now.
>
> I was living in a rooming house where we did our own cooking.
> There was a kitchen on the ground floor and another (small)
> kitchen on the third floor, where I lived.  One of my housemates
> was not only taking Physics 10 when I was, but we had the same
> section with the same TA.  So we got the same problem sets, which
> the TA handed out at the Tuesday section and got back at the
> Thursday section.
>
> So every Wednesday evening she and I would settle down in the
> third-floor kitchen and do the problem sets.  She had, and knew
> how to use, a slide rule.  I didn't.
>
> So we would both read the problem, and I would set up the
> equation, and she would solve it with her slide rule.  We would
> thus have exactly the same answers on our problem sets, and get
> the same grades on them.  We got some credit toward our final
> grade from the problem sets, more from the midterm, and a lot
> more from the final.
>
> Came the final, and we were put into a much larger room than we'd
> taken the class in, so we could be separated from one another by
> several seats; standard procedure.  Memory tells me now that
> there were several hundred problems to solve; it was probably
> more like 100.  And there I sat, with no slide rule, just basic
> arithmetic, at which I have always stunk.  (And there were no
> electronic calculators, back in the early 1950s.)
>
> After a moment of despair, I reasoned, "Well, this is a physics
> class, not a math class, so if I set up all the equations and
> then solve as many as there's time for by brute force and scratch
> paper, I'll get at least partial credit."  So I did that.

That's how engineers do it :-).  Crunching numbers is left
as an exercise for computers.  I always thought that computers
were invented so engineers didn't have to do arithmetic. ;-)

>  I got
> maybe halfway through the arithmetic by time's end.  Meanwhile,
> my housemate was doing whatever she did, armed with her slide
> rule.
>
> Came the final, I got an A, she got a C.

It's interesting how diffeent approaches to the same problems
produce different results.

/BAH

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green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-02 01:17 -0700
  Re: green stars Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2015-10-02 14:40 -0400
    Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-02 22:18 +0000
      Re: green stars Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2015-10-02 16:02 -0700
        Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-03 02:29 +0000
          Re: green stars Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2015-10-02 22:29 -0700
          Re: green stars Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> - 2015-10-03 23:49 -0300
            Re: green stars "Mike Dworetsky" <platinum198@pants.btinternet.com> - 2015-10-04 08:48 +0100
              Re: green stars Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2015-10-04 11:07 -0500
                Re: green stars "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> - 2015-10-04 12:50 -0400
                Re: green stars Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2015-10-04 10:54 -0700
                Re: green stars "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-04 13:21 -0400
                Re: green stars Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2015-10-04 11:15 -0600
                Re: green stars Stumpy <perilmung@spamnet.con> - 2015-10-05 13:39 -0700
                Re: green stars Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-10-08 20:27 -0700
                Re: green stars Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2015-10-09 00:08 -0600
                Re: green stars "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-09 04:54 -0400
                Re: green stars William Vetter <mdhangton@gmail.com> - 2015-10-09 13:09 -0400
                Re: green stars petertrei@gmail.com - 2015-10-09 10:16 -0700
                Re: green stars scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2015-10-09 18:20 +0000
                Re: green stars "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-09 19:28 -0400
                Re: green stars wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) - 2015-10-09 21:05 -0400
                Re: green stars "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> - 2015-10-09 21:42 -0400
                Re: green stars "John F. Eldredge" <john@jfeldredge.com> - 2015-10-10 16:55 +0000
            Re: green stars "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> - 2015-10-04 09:27 -0400
            Re: green stars William Vetter <mdhangton@gmail.com> - 2015-10-04 16:45 -0400
        Re: green stars Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2015-10-03 17:40 -0400
          Re: green stars Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2015-10-03 14:51 -0700
          Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-03 21:54 +0000
            Re: green stars Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2015-10-03 17:24 -0700
            Re: green stars wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) - 2015-10-04 06:46 -0400
              Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-04 13:15 +0000
                Re: green stars jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-10-04 14:27 +0000
                Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-04 16:53 +0000
                Re: green stars jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-10-05 13:02 +0000
                Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-05 14:39 +0000
                Re: green stars jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-10-06 13:34 +0000
                Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-06 14:24 +0000
                Re: green stars jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-10-07 13:18 +0000
                Re: green stars Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2015-10-07 19:27 -0400
                Re: green stars "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> - 2015-10-07 19:43 -0400
                Re: green stars Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2015-10-08 01:58 -0600
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-08 01:11 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-08 13:49 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-08 21:20 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-09 22:04 -0700
                Re: green stars Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-10-10 11:49 -0700
                Re: green stars hamish.laws@gmail.com - 2015-12-05 02:32 -0800
                Re: green stars wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) - 2015-10-08 08:19 -0400
                Re: green stars Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2015-10-09 00:10 -0600
                Re: green stars William Vetter <mdhangton@gmail.com> - 2015-10-09 13:19 -0400
                Re: green stars wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) - 2015-10-09 21:27 -0400
                Re: green stars Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2015-10-10 20:12 -0600
                Re: green stars hamish.laws@gmail.com - 2015-12-05 02:22 -0800
                Re: green stars Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2015-12-05 10:52 -0600
                Re: green stars Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2015-12-05 10:42 -0700
                Re: green stars "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> - 2015-12-05 13:02 -0500
                Re: green stars Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-05 11:33 -0800
                Re: green stars Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2015-12-05 15:00 -0800
                Re: green stars Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2015-12-06 01:56 -0700
                Re: green stars Lofty Goat <rlwatkins@gmail.com> - 2015-10-05 19:08 -0500
                Re: green stars Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2015-10-05 17:20 -0700
                Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-06 01:09 +0000
                Re: green stars "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-05 22:21 -0400
                Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-06 02:33 +0000
                Re: green stars "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-05 23:03 -0400
                Re: green stars Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2015-10-05 22:03 -0700
                Re: green stars Wayne Brown <fwbrown@bellsouth.net> - 2015-10-08 19:38 +0000
                Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-08 22:19 +0000
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-08 16:14 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-08 16:16 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-08 19:33 -0700
                Re: green stars "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-08 21:36 -0400
                Re: green stars djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2015-10-09 04:19 +0000
                Re: green stars Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-10-08 22:51 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-09 11:12 -0700
                Re: green stars scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2015-10-09 14:05 +0000
                Re: green stars "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-08 18:57 -0400
                Re: green stars jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-10-06 13:34 +0000
                Re: green stars Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2015-10-04 10:57 -0700
              Re: green stars "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> - 2015-10-04 10:41 -0400
                Re: green stars wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) - 2015-10-04 13:43 -0400
      Re: green stars wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) - 2015-10-02 22:38 -0400
      Re: green stars Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2015-10-03 17:37 -0400
        Re: green stars Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2015-10-03 14:52 -0700
        Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-05 01:17 -0700
          Re: green stars Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2015-10-05 14:04 -0400
            Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-05 12:58 -0700
              Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-05 23:52 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-06 10:24 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-06 12:35 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-06 15:15 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-06 15:31 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-06 23:12 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-06 23:34 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-07 00:49 -0700
                Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-08 21:24 -0700
        Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-05 01:39 -0700
          Re: green stars The Starmaker <starmaker@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-05 01:55 -0700
  Re: green stars Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-10-08 20:31 -0700

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