Escape sinking car homemade tool

[knuttle]

This exact point in that exact video must have been the couple's nightmare.

That car I think didn't have a working electrical system where it would be interesting to figure out how long it takes for the system to short out.

Even so, when I saw the (much longer) original video, I think it still took Adam another 10 or so seconds after the car settled to the bottom before the pressure equalized enough to open the door, which is 10 (or so) very critical sections to be holding your breath.

I wonder what this couple "thought" when they went into the water? What scenario do you envision actually happened (since we know it's real)?

[angelica...]

What a ginormous sexist. Any chance "our wives" already know this? I certainly do.

Cindy Hamilton

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I remember my first trig class, which wasn't very useful. The teacher spent the whole period going around and helping students to find the right buttons on their calculators. Nothing was said about what trig IS.

[snip]

[angelica...]

I can't recall my first trig class, but I know that nobody had a calculator. I think by the time we reached the fourth-year math class (unimaginatively called "Math IV"), there was one guy who had a calculator. His father was an engineer.

Cindy Hamilton

[rbowman]

Calculators?

[rbowman]

iirc the first pocket calculator I saw was a friend's Bomar in the early '70s. All of four functions and a price tag of over $200 pre-inflation dollars.

When I was going to college I worked for the NYS Dept. of Education summers, specifically in the area that prepared professional and the state wide Regents tests for high schools. They did a lot of statistical analysis to prepare the question pools and it was all done with these beasts:

The Fridens had one design oversight; they would happily try to divide by zero until you unplugged them.

[Marilyn Manson]

On the flip side, back in the mid 80's I used a Casio FX-98 calculator.

A full scientific, solar power calculator, that fit in my shirt pocket. The same length and width of a credit card, but just a bit thicker.

[knuttle]

Calculators?

I bet they would have cost thousands of dollars in my day. :) And taken up the entire classroom and electrical supply too.

Eventually by the end of my trig semester we knew every value by heart. Just as we did with hex when we learned to program in assembly language.

I forgot it all though. Long ago.

I wonder if it ever comes back?

[Marilyn Manson]

Assembly language! push, mov, pop, ret...ah the memories!

I went into the service after high school and spent 6 years as an Electronics Technician. By the time I started college I was older and "wiser" than most of the other students. I remember taking an assembly language class and really enjoying it.

I don't remember what the issue was but I recall a group of students all trying to figure how to complete some task. They were mumbling and complaining and getting frustrated. I listened for a while and then said something like "Have you tried clearing the register?" They were all shocked that the solution was so easy.

I glanced up at the instructor who was shoveling some papers on his desk. He didn't even look up, just got a big smile on face. I think he liked that I could do his job for him. ;-)

[John]

knuttle wrote

It has already with single chip micros.

*

[rbowman]

.7071. That does double duty as a sine and cosine. 0.0000 and 1.0000 are also useful. As for the rest

#include <stdlib.h>

#include <stdio.h>

#include <math.h>

#define PI 3.1415926

int main(int argc, char** argv) { double degrees;

degrees = atof(argv[1]); printf("the sine of %f degrees is %f\n", degrees, degrees * PI/180.0); return 0; }

~ $gcc sin.c -lm -o sin ~ $./sin 45 the sine of 45.000000 degrees is 0.707107

When all you have is a hammer...

[rbowman]

K&E slide rule with the magnifying cursor for utmost accuracy. Slide rules were a sort of reality check so you didn't wander off the path by several orders of magnitude. Now you punch in numbers and whatever comes out must be the right answer. In physics tests the sins, in descending order, were

1. complete failure to grasp the concept
2. grasping the concept but missing the goal by a factor of 100
3. sloppy math but a realistic answer

My high school algebra teacher used to scold me. I'd skip all the refactoring and juggling terms around the = and write the answer. She would stand over me and recite '95% of the time you have the right answer but you skip steps. If the answer is wrong I don't have a clue why.'

Somewhere along the line I'd stumbled over the Trachtenberg method and gotten adept at it. Casting out the nines gave a high probability that the product was right. Teachers didn't like that very much either. Of course now if I want to buy 17 widgets at $1.32 apiece I hunt up a calculator.

[The Real Bev]

You get three digits. The zeroes are up to you. Choose well.