Author Archives: mathscinotes

Optical Power Budgets and A Quick Dispersion Calculation

Posted on 6-August-2014 by mathscinotes

For those who are not familiar with dispersion, take a look at Figure 1, which provides a qualitative view of dispersion. The digital data can be view as a stream of optical power pulses, ones being represented by power and zeros represented by near zero power. The pulses of optical power can be viewed as composed of a range of wavelengths (i.e. color). The different colors all move at different speeds along the fiber. This speed difference causes the pulse to spread out as it travels down the fiber. As the pulses spread out, they begin to overlap each other and their power levels reduce. This makes detection less reliable and is one of the fiber impairments that limits the range and data rate of optical fiber. Continue reading →

Posted in optics | Comments Off on Optical Power Budgets and A Quick Dispersion Calculation

This Idea Solves a Life-Long Problem

Posted on 4-August-2014 by mathscinotes

I cannot tell you how often in 35 years of marriage I have come home to the open-ended question from my wife "Do you like it?", without "it" being defined. I then spend the next 10 uncomfortable minutes trying to figure out what aspect of my wife's appearance has changed. I admit that I simply do not notice things like haircuts, changes in hair color, new clothes, etc. I am so bad that I have even failed to notice a complete change of hair color (blonde to brunette). Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on This Idea Solves a Life-Long Problem

Calibrating My Chop Saw to Make a Perpendicular Cut Using a Bit of Geometry

Posted on 2-August-2014 by mathscinotes

I have a similar saw (12 inch version) and I am very happy with mine. I thought for a moment and asked my co-worker "Have you calibrated your saw?" He told me no and he did not know it could be calibrated. Time for a little geometry -- construction always presents me with the best classical geometry exercises. Continue reading →

Posted in Construction, Geometry | Comments Off on Calibrating My Chop Saw to Make a Perpendicular Cut Using a Bit of Geometry

My ANOVA and Gage R&R Self-Education

Posted on 29-July-2014 by mathscinotes

Quote of the Day Who are a little wise the best fools be. — John Donne Introduction I recently took an excellent class at Statistics.com called "Prediction & Tolerance Intervals, Measurement and Reliability" taught by Dr. Tom Ryan, a former … Continue reading →

Posted in Statistics | 2 Comments

The Behavior of People in Corporate Meetings

Posted on 11-July-2014 by mathscinotes

One of the engineer's in my group sent me this reference to a blog post on ten techniques that make you sound smart in a meeting. While this engineer did not name any names, I know several people that I regularly work with that use these methods. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Repairing My Electric Dryer and a Little Math

Posted on 10-July-2014 by mathscinotes

I came home the other night and my wife reported that our clothes dryer was not generating any heat for drying clothes. She called a repairman and he could not repair our dryer for a long time and was going to charge a lot of money (e.g. $90 for a heater coil that was $30 from Amazon). While I know NOTHING about clothes dryers, I decided to try to fix it myself. As with most of my repair adventures, I started with Youtube. After a couple of minutes, I found the following video where a repairman gave a great demonstration on how to change the heater coil (Whirlpool part number 3387747) in my clothes dryer. Continue reading →

Posted in General Mathematics | Comments Off on Repairing My Electric Dryer and a Little Math

Coaxial Cable Basics

Posted on 8-July-2014 by mathscinotes

I am preparing some customer education material on coaxial cables for customers (Figure 1 shows some coaxial cable examples) and I thought this information was worth documenting here. Our fiber optic products interface to coaxial cables so that service providers can use existing in-home wiring. Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics | 3 Comments

The Yearly Cost of Running Networking Gear

Posted on 24-June-2014 by mathscinotes

Figure 1 shows how the power conversion for this particular ONT is performed. There actually are two power conversion stages involved: (1) 120 V AC to -48 V, and (2) -48 V to 12 V. Two conversion stages were required because no off-the-shelf, 12 V UPS exists that had sufficient battery capacity to meet the customer's backup time requirements. However, a -48 V UPS is available with a large enough battery to meet their needs. This type of problem is common in real-world deployments. Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics | 1 Comment

Interesting Folding Bed

Posted on 22-June-2014 by mathscinotes

I am an amateur woodworker and I find clever, geometric constructions in wood very interesting. Here is an interesting collapsible bed design. Check out their web page. Continue reading →

Posted in Construction, Geometry | 1 Comment

Engineering Origami

Posted on 21-June-2014 by mathscinotes

I have always been a big fan of origami -- especially rigid origami. I saw two articles in the engineering press that are definitely worth taking a look at. Continue reading →

Posted in Geometry, Origami, Paper Machines | Comments Off on Engineering Origami