Mild Rants

  So it is a weird thing how the mind makes bizarre connections between seemingly unrelated events. Was kickin back watching some Turner Classic Movies when a military officer said you can identify Richard Burton's character by parallel scars 3 cm apart on his wrist.  The film title which costarred Clint Eastwood was titled Where Eagles Dare (1968) This dude who does a damn good job of explaining mathematics popped into my head along the lines of how many hair follicles could be expected to be found on the skin between the scars?!?!?!?   Jeez Louise WTF.  Michael Penn answers much harder questions than that right?!?  Perhaps it was because my son in Colorado is losing his hair and always talks about Math Stud Doctor Penn. Everybody has a lot of time on their hands these days and I use some of my time to Google old friends. I found out the referenced mathematician has a killer YouTube channel that is really close to 100,000 subscribers which is the...

So junior was struggling big time with this physics concept called grade resistance. He found this math tutoring site created by "Professor" Laurie Morvan. She did not do the video herself, but had a guy doing it who did not explain where the grade force resistance trig equation came from! Her site did not explain how the weight of a vehicle on the inclined plane modeled by a hill was broken up in to two forces; one perpendicular and one parallel to slope or incline of the hill!!! From the force diagram that results, one can conclude that the Force(F) acting against the car going up OR down the hill is equal the sine of the angle of inclination multiplied by the weight of car, truck, UPS delivery, 18 wheeler semi truck or whatever the particular mode of transportation/conveyance that is doing the moving. One can use this equation to get the weight of vehicle given the angle and force also! The professor is no more than a preacher telling you to believe rather than rationa...