I know some of you are engineers, so my hat's off to you as this is the week set aside to honor engineers. Have a great week!!

 

I didn't realize that there were that many engineers left to qualify for a "Week". My brother in law drives an old steam engine down in old town Sacramento on the weekends. It takes kids of all ages up the Sacramento River about 5 miles and then comes back.

I'll have to remind Deb to say nice things to the guy in the engine car on her commute this week.

 

Would I be correct in assuming that Valentine was referring to the slide rule type not the choo choo type of engineer?

 

Which ever type she's referring to, the thread's title is appropriate for engineering literary abilities HPH

(And lest anyone get too bent out of shape, my baccalaureate degree is in aerospace engineering.)

 

Fore years ago, I coodn't even spell enjinere, now I are one.

Sorry, old joke about engineers, I can tell it because I am one and have been for over 25 years.

 

Wow Matt, the slide rule type - I haven't used a slide rule since I bought a calculator (HP-35) in 1974. As a matter of fact, I sold my slide rule to a collector about 5 years ago when I left California.

 

I've decided that since most of my face to face humor is delivered deadpan, I'm gonna stop using smileys. That way the conputer monitor will offer about as much insight into my inner workings as my face normally does.

 

from <http://www.frontiernet.net/~tzuleger/webjokes/engineers/engineersigns.shtml>

You might be an engineer if . . .

. . . you have no life and can prove it mathematically.
. . . you enjoy pain.
. . . you know vector calculus but you can

 

Thank God for Excel......

 

Thank You Valentine... What a Great Thread

In honor of an Engineer (my Father is one), or two, that I know... I went all over the internet looking for a picture of "The Perfect Swing", designed by an Engineer! Alas, I could not find the picture (actually a cartoon... LOL). Perhaps you've seen it... the scene depicts a mighty tree, with it's strong limbs lithly bowing away from it's sides... joined together by big, thick ropes lashed and hanging from it's limbs to the innocous wooden seat spanning the area where you sit and prepare to enjoy your ride... right into the trunk of the tree!

Well, I'm sorry to have to disappoint you by not furnishing the picture/cartoon, however, I have been fortunate tenough to have found a plethora of Engineer-related test questions which I presume were created to gauge the aptitude of 'potentials'. So, without further 'to-do' I present the following query (courtesy of: http://groups.physics.umn.edu/physed/Resea...ive/crcecm.html )

#14. In a weak moment you have volunteered to be a human cannonball at an amateur charity circus. The "cannon" is actually a 3-foot diameter tube with a big stiff spring inside which is attached to the bottom of the tube. A small seat is attached to the free end of the spring. The ringmaster, one of your soon to be ex-friends, gives you your instructions. He tells you that just before you enter the mouth of the cannon, a motor will compress the spring to 1/10 its normal length and hold it in that position. You are to gracefully crawl in the tube and sit calmly in the seat without holding on to anything. The cannon will then be raised to an angle such that your speed through the air at your highest point is 10 ft/sec. When the spring is released, neither the spring nor the chair will touch the sides of the 12-foot long tube. After the drum roll, the spring is released and you will fly through the air with the appropriate sound effects and smoke. With the perfect aim of your gun crew, you will fly through the air over a 15-foot wall and land safely in the net. You are just a bit worried and decide to calculate how high above your starting position you will be at your highest point. Before the rehearsal, the cannon is taken apart for maintenance. You see the spring, which is now removed from the cannon, is hanging straight down with one end attached to the ceiling. You determine that it is 10 feet long. When you hang on its free end without touching the ground, it stretches by 2.0 ft. Is it possible for you to make it over the wall?



I'll be having another Dr. Myer's Medicinal Dark Rum if anyone needs me!
Helen