discussion A Question of Scale

[Guest]

Ah, yes, all those Latin-based terms that Dutch science replaced by ones easier to understand in the 17th century We know the hypothenuse simply as the sloping side of the triangle, for example. Or “physics” as, literally translated, “nature-knowledge”.

 

[Gern]

Nice one Dave. I was thinking of SOHCAHTOA, oops! Some Old Hairy Camels Are Hairier Than Others Are…….my maths teacher was a huge Southampton fan, so we had another that started Saints On High, but I cant remember the rest

Beat me to it! I've actually got that tattoo'd on the inside of my eyelids - along with the general solution for quadratic equations. Came in very handy during exams!

 

[Tim Marlow]

Ah, yes, all those Latin-based terms that Dutch science replaced by ones easier to understand in the 17th century :smiling3: We know the hypothenuse simply as the sloping side of the triangle, for example. Or “physics” as, literally translated, “nature-knowledge”.

Yes, but where’s the fun in that LOL…..
PS, Pythagoras was a Greek not a Roman LOL…..

 

[Gern]

If you find mathematics great fun to read, you’re even weirder than me :tongue-out:

Also, XKCD:

And the argument still used by Americans and elderly Brits the world over: “Too difficult, <random mess of units> is much easier (because I know it already)!”


Not just youngsters (well, depending on your definition of youngster, I suppose …). I was in secondary school in the late 80s to early 90s, and we had none of those — instead, we had a Casio ƒx-82 :smiling3: (Or other scientific calculator of your choice, but my school recommended the ƒx-82.)


I suppose there’s a rule that gauge is the number of wires that will fit tightly in the tube.

Calculators! At school! They hadn't been invented when I did my O-levels. I actually saw one of the first calculators to become available in this country when our A-level maths tutor bought one. It was about the size of a hardback airport novel. You know the ones. Those with a greek letter in the title and 950 pages of weapons specifications!

(Kids of today can't work out where the batteries are supposed to go so don't bother with them).

 

[Guest]

PS, Pythagoras was a Greek not a Roman

Oh, does the term come from him? Never knew that … Anyway, I meant most of those foreign words

 

[Gern]

Yes, but where’s the fun in that LOL…..
PS, Pythagoras was a Greek not a Roman LOL…..

Yeah. But the Greeks were using the rules for right-angled triangles hundreds of years before good ol' Peter Goras appeared on the scene!

 

[Gern]

In searching for models for 3D printing - I find that a lot of tank models are in 1/56, which are also labelled as 28mm scale, It's obviously a popular wargaming scale. but what actually is it? If you look at the definition of 28mm scale - it ranges from 1/60 to 1/64 depending on source - where does the 1/56 come from?
I'm upscaling models to 1/35, which coveniently is 1.6 X 1/56 size. As a stand alone model, it may not cause a problem, but if you add in figures, and other accessories, that may look a little odd at times.
As a passing interest how did this scale come about? Scales can be verry annoying - Why 1/32 and 1/35? why 1/72 & 1/76?
You can resize according to real specs ie actual size divided by 1/35, but you can be tricked by real specs - is the length including gun forward, or not?
I resized the model of the Orient French battleship, to 1/350, or so I thought. It turns out that the length dimension I used, included the bow sprit!, so the model is probably about 1/320! It doesn't really matter, but can be.................ummmmmmm vexing
Dave

Oh David! Little did you know what depths of depravity your innocent post would lead to!

 

[minitnkr]

I just finished 'The Sand Reckoner', a fictional book about Archimedes' life that gave me a whole different appreciation for lovers of math.

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Now this is what I call a rabbit hole :tears-of-joy:

 

[Dave Ward]

Calculators! When I was an apprentice, I bought a Sinclair Cambrige calculator kit for £25 ( it could be bought fully assemblrd for around £30 ). Took me a while to get it working, but really chuffed when I did. At college I was warned that I couldn;t use it in exams, and still had to depend on the slide rule. It was only a simple 4 function calculator, but was a real innovation. Rules change, and the use of calculators in exams was allowed. - sadly my Sinclair had to be retired & replaced with a Casio Fx 101, which had all the scentific functions ( although it was twice as big ). My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 48K+ that I think was around the £150 mark. Sir Clive Sinclair was a truly great inventor, sadly not matched by his business acumen ie the Sinclair C5!!!!
Dave

 

[Tim Marlow]

Yeah. But the Greeks were using the rules for right-angled triangles hundreds of years before good ol' Peter Goras appeared on the scene!

Yep, in the same way we were all using gravity before Newton turned up……

 

[Tim Marlow]

Calculators! When I was an apprentice, I bought a Sinclair Cambrige calculator kit for £25 ( it could be bought fully assemblrd for around £30 ). Took me a while to get it working, but really chuffed when I did. At college I was warned that I couldn;t use it in exams, and still had to depend on the slide rule. It was only a simple 4 function calculator, but was a real innovation. Rules change, and the use of calculators in exams was allowed. - sadly my Sinclair had to be retired & replaced with a Casio Fx 101, which had all the scentific functions ( although it was twice as big ). My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 48K+ that I think was around the £150 mark. Sir Clive Sinclair was a truly great inventor, sadly not matched by his business acumen ie the Sinclair C5!!!!
Dave

Couldn’t use calculators when I did my O levels, I seem to remember using log tables, but the rules changed by A level times two years later. My first one was a Casio of some sort, called a desk top calculator. It was so large that if you’d fitted legs to it you could have used it as a desk…..
Remember the C5 being on sale in a local Curry’s branch. Utterly ludicrous idea……
My first computer was a Commodore 64. Very nice machine. Didn’t like the Sinclair models because the keyboard was awful.

 

[Guest]

Still got our Sinclair with a ram pack ! Remember going to Peterborough years ago when the girls were about 10 standing in a queue at WH Smiths .

 

[Guest]

RT60 = 0.049 V/a Sabines Formula.
When I had a small recording studio many years ago we use this to judge the given echo from various materials like curtains , floors etc in a room .
The list of given properties for different reflections was as far as I got, the actual mathematics is way above most people !

 

[Dave Ward]

keyboard was awfu

The Spectrum 48K had a proper keyboard - the earlier Spectrums had those horrible rubber pads!

I also had a couple of Microdrives, which did away with using a cassette recorder for storage
Dave

 

[Guest]

Have marmite pots a dedicated gauge?
Bewilderedly yours
Andy The Sheep.:tongue-out3:

Marmite jars only have single-start threads, whereas jam jars have four-start or more Andrea. The guage will be determined by the width of the jar as there seems to be a universal size for each diameter.
Don't ask me how I know such useless information

 

[langy71]

I seem to remember some confusion years ago with the calibres of weapons and ammunition.. Nato rounds such as 5.56mm were often referred to as 556mm and 7.62 were 762mm

which if you remove the decimal point, makes them drastically bigger than the weapons they were designed to be used in..

 

[langy71]

The Spectrum 48K had a proper keyboard - the earlier Spectrums had those horrible rubber pads!

I also had a couple of Microdrives, which did away with using a cassette recorder for storage
Dave

ahhhh the good old ZX Spectrum+, I loved this iteration of it...felt like a 'proper' computer...(until you tried to program it..lol)

 

[stillp]

The only time I ever cheated in an exam was when I scratched SOHCAHTOA under the slide of my slide rule.
Pete

 

[Airborne01]

I found this in my stash (from way back when); my wife went into raptures and began reciting various formulae - weird Maths Graduate!
Steve