Author Archives: mathscinotes

Using Excel to View US Pre-School Attendance Rate

Posted on 4-January-2018 by mathscinotes

Jeffery Sachs was on CSPAN this weekend giving a talk on the competitive challenges the US faces with other nations. During his presentation, he showed a chart (Figure 1) that ranks the US as 30th among reporting OECD countries with respect to preschool participation rates for 4-year-old children. The discussion was interesting, but I found myself focusing on the technical aspects of the graphs he was using. I am always looking for good Excel examples for use in training my staff, and the y-axis in Figure 1 contains formatted text, which is something I have not shown my staff how to do. Continue reading →

Posted in Excel | Comments Off on Using Excel to View US Pre-School Attendance Rate

Dealing with Furnace Condensate At Low Temperatures

Posted on 2-January-2018 by mathscinotes

While working on my retirement home and workshop in northern Minnesota, I have noticed that my furnace is generating between five and seven gallons of condensate per day. The furnace is on quite often this time of year because the outside temperature is running about -30°F (-35°C). I currently pipe the condensate over to a floor drain, which is connected to my septic system. Continue reading →

Posted in Construction, General Science | 13 Comments

Audie Murphy's Rifle and the Power of Databases

Posted on 26-December-2017 by mathscinotes

When I was a boy, I read the memoir To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy and was very impressed with his accomplishments as an infantry soldier during WW2 (Figure 1). It is a very American tale – a dirt poor teenager from family with a dead mother and missing father accomplishes amazing feats through sheer determination and force of will. He later starred in a movie version of his book that is well worth watching. I should mention that the book tells a better tale than the movie. Continue reading →

Posted in Military History, software | 10 Comments

Earth's Curvature and Battleship Gunnery

Posted on 20-December-2017 by mathscinotes

I must admit that I am a bit of a battleship junkie. I have been reading some old US Navy manuals on battleship fire control, which discuss the various effects that must be corrected for to ensure accurate fire (Figure 1). In this post, I want to examine how the curvature of the Earth affected the gunnery direction. Curvature corrections are only needed for very long-range artillery. Continue reading →

Posted in Ballistics, Naval History | 102 Comments

Super Bowl Winners and Losers Using Power Query

Posted on 13-December-2017 by mathscinotes

I was reading a post on Statista showing the NFL teams with the most Super Bowl wins. Since my staff includes a number of football fans — mainly Viking and Packer supporters — I decided it would be a good training exercise to show them how to gather the football statistics and present them in the same manner as shown on Statista. I should mention that I do not follow football at all; this is purely a data analysis exercise for me. Continue reading →

Posted in Excel, Statistics | Comments Off on Super Bowl Winners and Losers Using Power Query

My Star Trek TOS Database

Posted on 8-December-2017 by mathscinotes

The people on my team frequently chide me for using management analogies drawn from the original Star Trek television series, which fans refer to as Star Trek TOS. Because of these analogies, I need to provide exact references for the younger folks on our team who have not memorized every episode. I decided that it was time for me to put together an online list that I could search and sort as the need arises. I grabbed the data from the Internet Movie Database (IMBD), including their overall reviews of each episode. Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | 5 Comments

Cannon Bore Measured in Pounds

Posted on 7-December-2017 by mathscinotes

I have been pulling together some WW2 data for an article that I want to publish in the next year or two. During my research, I have noticed that the British specified the caliber of their artillery by the nominal mass of the projectile (lbm or pound mass) and not by the bore diameter. I was curious as to how the British came to this particular system and decided to investigate further. As with many military standards, it traces its history back hundreds of years. Continue reading →

Posted in Military History | Comments Off on Cannon Bore Measured in Pounds

The Pacific War and Manufacturing Capacity

Posted on 4-December-2017 by mathscinotes

I was watched a particularly interesting lecture by Victor Davis Hanson on his new book The Second World Wars. While Hanson is generally thought of as an ancient Greek scholar, he does an excellent job of analyzing WW2 from a novel set of viewpoints: ideas, air, water, earth, fire, and people. Continue reading →

Posted in History Through Spreadsheets, Military History | Comments Off on The Pacific War and Manufacturing Capacity

Statistics of US Senate Disciplining Its Members

Posted on 21-November-2017 by mathscinotes

The controversial senate candidacy of Roy Moore has resulted in some discussion of how the US Senate would respond if he won the election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has mentioned the possibility of expulsion. I could not recall hearing of anyone being expelled from the Senate recently, so I decided to grab some data from the Senate web site and summarize it here. Continue reading →

Posted in Civics Through Spreadsheets | 5 Comments

An Interstellar Visitor?

Posted on 20-November-2017 by mathscinotes

Astronomers are now working on determining if a recently discovered asteroid is an interstellar visitor. The first observations of this asteroid were made by a team of researchers at the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on Haleakala in Hawaii (Figure 1). Continue reading →

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