Monthly Archives: October 2013

Another Glamour Shot from the World of Engineering

Posted on 25-October-2013 by mathscinotes

Things are starting to get cold now in Minnesota and all nature's creatures are looking for a nice warm place to stay for the winter -- including me. Today's photo shows a frog who found one of my optical network … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics | Comments Off on Another Glamour Shot from the World of Engineering

More Bugs in My Optics

Posted on 19-October-2013 by mathscinotes

I had another optical failure related to bug intrusion. I do not yet understand how the bugs do it, but somehow they increase my optical loss enormously. This particular optical node was not properly sealed and box elder bugs got … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiber Optics | Comments Off on More Bugs in My Optics

Example of a Useful Histogram

Posted on 19-October-2013 by mathscinotes

Sometimes all it takes is to use a histogram maker to create a graph, for example, to help provide you the clue you need to solve a mystery. Currently, I am working on reducing the failure rate of Avalanche Photo-Diodes … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics | Comments Off on Example of a Useful Histogram

Candle Flame in Space

Posted on 15-October-2013 by mathscinotes

Quote of the Day Only enemies speak the truth. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty. — Stephen King I saw this photo posted by Robert Frost here. It shows a flame on Earth (left) and … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, General Science | Tagged | Comments Off on Candle Flame in Space

World War 2 Industrial Casualties

Posted on 15-October-2013 by mathscinotes

I like to watch authors discuss their history books on BookTV. I listen to BookTV while I work around the house. One weekend, I heard two historians (I did not write down their names) discussing World War 2 and each mentioned a statistic that sounded something like this (my wording). Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science and Technology, History Through Spreadsheets, Military History | 24 Comments

Another Interpretation of the Ballistic Coefficient

Posted on 5-October-2013 by mathscinotes

Introduction I love to look for physical interpretations of various constants. Sometimes it is impossible to come up with an interpretation, but such is not the case for the ballistic coefficient. This morning I read a very solid piece of … Continue reading →

Posted in Ballistics | 9 Comments

16-in Battleship Gun Ballistic Coefficient

Posted on 5-October-2013 by mathscinotes

A projectile with a large ballistic coefficient is less affected by drag than a projectile with a smaller ballistic coefficient. We can use the the ballistic coefficient to compare the effect of drag on different projectiles. A 16-inch projectile goes so much farther than a rifle bullet because the drag on the 16-inch projectile is relatively small compared to its momentum. Ultimately, this is because mass increases by the cube of the projectile dimensions and drag increases by the square of the projectile dimensions. This means that larger projectiles tend to have higher ballistic coefficients and drag has less effect. Continue reading →

Posted in Ballistics | 5 Comments

Parameter Determination for Pejsa Velocity Model

Posted on 3-October-2013 by mathscinotes

I have had several people ask me questions about the Pejsa ballistic model (previous post) and I thought it would be useful to include some additional posts on the topic. In this post, I will discuss how the formula and parameters were determined for the velocity versus range formula for the range of velocities from 1400 feet per second to 4000 feet per second (sorry about the use of US customary units). Continue reading →

Posted in Ballistics | 4 Comments