Re: Engineering Mathematics

From: Active8 (reply2group_at_ndbbm.net)
Date: 08/24/04 

Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 13:22:12 -0400

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 17:07:28 GMT, Kevin Aylward wrote:

> Dan Major wrote:
>> Robert Baer <robertbaer@earthlink.net> wrote in news:4129B10C.B406EB32
>> @earthlink.net:
>>
>>> ....
>>> What ever happened to "slide rule accuracy" and the "order of
>>> magnitude" caculations that came with use of the slide rule?
>>
>> I've been reading some old Heinlein science fiction. He frequently
>> writes about astro-navigation using only a slide rule. navigation
>> over millions or billions of miles with only 4 significant digits!
>> Even the logrithm and trig tables I've got only have 4 places (not
>> that I have a very good math reference library). I wonder how many
>> college students would know how to work either a slide rule or work
>> out complicated answers on paper? Seems like forever ago when I
>> learned Newton's aproximation methods and other tricks.
>
> And as I have a smattering of GR (e.g. see web site), I might mention, I
> feel that many don't really appreciate just how F*&^ing incredible
> Steven Hawking is in being able to do the calculations that he does in
> his head. People usually just nod in agreement, without much idea
> really, based on reputation. It used to take me the whole weekend doing
> relatively trivial problems, like 10 pages of solid tensor
> manipulations. The dude is truly amazing.
>
Speaking of physics, and yeah, Hawking is some sh*t, what do you
think of that "Theory of Everything." Should I spand (waste?) any
time reading any of that? 

-- 
Best Regards,
Mike
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