Monthly Archives: April 2020

Gravity on Von Braun Station

Posted on 25-April-2020 by mathscinotes

I have been reading about Wernher von Braun's work with Disney on popularizing the idea of spaceflight with the public. He was a genius at marketing and a tireless champion for space flight. In addition to his television work, he also gave numerous speeches to any group that would listen. I smile as I think about my high‑school physics teacher beaming with pride when he spoke of von Braun arriving in a helicopter to speak to local physics teachers about space and flying to the moon. My physics teacher could not remember the details of what von Braun spoke about, but his entrance and exit in a helicopter made a huge impression on a town of 1800 people! Continue reading →

Posted in Space | 6 Comments

The Amazing de Havilland Mosquito

Posted on 18-April-2020 by mathscinotes

During the routine demolition of an old de Havilland Aircraft building in 2017, a treasure trove of 20K aperture cards (a microfilmed archive) was uncovered that contained plans for the Mosquito fighter-bomber (Figure 1). These plans have been lost since Mosquito production ended in  1950. Continue reading →

Posted in History Through Spreadsheets, Military History | 4 Comments

USNS Comfort Bed Count Relative To Other US Hospitals

Posted on 4-April-2020 by mathscinotes

Because of COVID-19, I am currently sheltering-in-place at my cabin in northern Minnesota. I was reading news reports of the USNS Comfort docking in New York City to provide the city with another 1000 bed hospital. I had no idea as to the average size of a hospital and decided to take a quick look at the number of beds in hospitals around the United States using a histogram. Continue reading →

Posted in Civics Through Spreadsheets, Excel | 3 Comments