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Author Archives: mathscinotes
Beautiful Spiral
Quote of the Day If a mistake is not a stepping stone, then it is a mistake. — Eli Siegel, "Damned Welcome" I have always been amazed at the beautiful curves that relatively simple functions can generate. I saw this … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Geometry, Humor
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Cat Litter and Radioactivity
I am not a cat person – the only time that cats come up in my family is in regards to Schrodinger's cat (Figure 1). However, I just came across an interesting web page by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities that discusses cat litter and the fact that it is slightly radioactive. Some cat litter is slightly radioactive because the contain bentonite clay, which contains small amounts of radioactive uranium (238U), thorium (232U), and potassium (40K). I find this web page interesting because it includes measured radiation data and an estimate of the heavy metals (uranium and thorium) that are contained in cat litter. Continue reading
Posted in General Mathematics, General Science
4 Comments
Dating and Compatibility Correlations
There must be an enormous amount of money involved in Internet dating because I see their commercials on television all the time. As far as their success in matching people up, I only have one data point – one of my sons met a wonderful gal though the OkCupid online service. Continue reading
Posted in Humor
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Income Inequality and the Gini Coefficient
Quote of the Day The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. - Dwight Whitney Morrow Introduction I recently have been hearing politicians lamenting the growth of income inequality in the United States. … Continue reading
Posted in Financial
5 Comments
Radiation Exposure on a Trip to Mars
Quote of the Day You're off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So... get on your way! — Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You'll Go!) Introduction I recently re-watched a 1955 science fiction classic, Conquest … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy
2 Comments
Pepper Math
Quote of the Day The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer Introduction A friend of mine loves the heat of peppers – I only ate one … Continue reading
Posted in Baking, General Science
2 Comments
Clever Use of Different Solder Melting Points to Solve a PCB Problem
Just before lunch, some of the hardware folks here were having a discussion about a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) issue that had come up and how we had solved this issue in the past. During this discussion, one of the hardware managers reminded me of how he cleverly resolved a part problem we had a few years ago by using solders with different melting points. At the time, I thought his solution was brilliant and it saved us a bunch of time and money. His solution is worth documenting here. Continue reading
Posted in Electronics
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Unit Conversion and Significant Digits
Quote of the Day Negative results are just what I want. They're just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t. — Thomas … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics
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Optimum Television Viewing Distance
Quote of the Day I am not a fast reader, I am a fast understander. — Isaac Asimov Introduction My wife has said that we are going to move into the 1990s and buy a High-Definition TV (HDTV). I am … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics
3 Comments
The Farthest Mountaintops from the Center of the Earth
I have a boring task that requires that I be able to access a geographic database to gather a large amount of information. There are numerous databases out there, but the Wikipedia Geonames database is the one I would really like to learn how to use – it is large and free. I am not particularly skilled at web scraping and I have been procrastinating on my task for a while. I need a interesting problem to drive my interest. Continue reading
Posted in General Science, Geology
37 Comments