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Author Archives: mathscinotes
I Would Not Like to Have Worked For Frank Lloyd Wright
Because my wife and I are designing a cabin to replace our hunting shack in northern Minnesota, we have been looking at various house designs. Many of the designs we have looked at show the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, who was the most famous member of the Prairie School of architecture. I know that Frank Lloyd Wright (Figure 1) is considered America's greatest architect (according to American Institute of Architects, 1991), but I do not think I would have wanted to work for him. Continue reading
Posted in History of Science and Technology, Management
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Designing an LED Backlight
I was reading an application note by Texas Instruments yesterday on how to design an LED backlight for an LCD display (Figure 1). The article was interesting, but it did bother me because it presented a rather involved formula and did not provided any motivation for the formula, a derivation, or even definitions of the parameters used in the formula. Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, optics
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Bathroom Fan Selection
I recently began remodeling a small bathroom on the second floor of my home. I have never been happy with the ventilation in that bathroom, particularly during showers when it seems more like a steam room than a bathroom. I decided to upgrade the ventilation fan in this room and I have been very happy with the improved performance. Figure 1 shows how the fan looks on my ceiling − yes, I am experimenting with a wood ceiling . In this post, I will go through my fan selection process and my ultimate choice. Continue reading
Posted in Construction
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PVC Expansion and How to Deal with it
I have written a post about the problems that I encounter with the improper use of PVC pipes and accessories in outdoor Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) deployments. During my normal reading about codes and regulations, I found an example of a bad installation and an example of how to properly deal with PVC expansion by installing an expansion joint. Both of these items deserve some coverage here. Continue reading
Posted in Construction
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Donor Chain Math
I just read an interesting article at Ars Technica on the mathematics behind setting up donor chains. The math is actually a variant of the prize-collecting traveling salesman problem, which is NP-hard. Continue reading
Posted in General Mathematics
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Mississippi River and Its Distance from the Center of the Earth
In a recent post, I discussed how to compute the distance of mountaintops from the center of the Earth. This computation was interesting because we had to take into account the oblate shape of the Earth. Continue reading
Posted in General Science
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My Online Statistics Education Experience
Quote of the Day I can't mate in captivity. - Gloria Steinem on why she never married I have been fortunate in having worked for companies that have had enlightened education policies, which I have always taken advantage of. These … Continue reading
Posted in Statistics
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Super-Strong Sawhorse
Quote of the Day How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak… because in your life you will have been all … Continue reading
Posted in Construction
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High-Speed Broadband, Fiber-To-The-Home, and President Obama
Quote of the Day Even if all others do - not I. — Father of Joachim Fest (German Historian), from the Gospel of Matthew, a quote he made his sons memorize during WW2. I have been working for the past … Continue reading
Posted in Fiber Optics
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