Aw crap, apologies on the last post: you are absolutely right about that - the voltage remains constant across the loads in the parallel circuit but the current is split. Series splits the voltage. I'm officially now electrically dyslexic! Got it backwards.
Basic circuits 101.... God that's embarrassing. No need for the link. Like I said though, I haven't done this for 14 years.. and i was trying to bang that post out quick because I'm at work.
But it was still wonky the way they were portraying the circuit; while it's conceivable the battery would have enough current for more than one bulb (it was 4, not 2), it's questionable, especially where 4 bulbs are concerned. I don't think they should be teaching electrical circuits unless they're going to teach about voltage and current, too. Without that, the real nature of electricity is vague, and the lesson could lead the kids to believe that putting things in parallel magically allows one to add any number of loads they want to a circuit. That was my chief concern. But that was just one example. Teaching to a test essentially has a basis on memorization, not understanding.
Good luck on the new job, BTW.
I've seen errors in their fancy new books, like teaching that putting a circuit in parallel instead of series increases power, which flat out violates Ohm's law, not to mention several others.
Uh, if you are building a circuit with two resistors and a battery, putting the resistors in parallel does increase the total power dissipated on the circuit. The total effective resistance is less, therefore the current drawn from the battery is higher, and since the battery's voltage will stay relatively constant, more total power is dissipated. This all follows from Ohm's law.
Perhaps you misspoke; your language certainly lacks the precision of someone who has actually worked with circuits.
And you certainly sound like a physicist who overthinks basic electronic circuits from a children's textbook perspective. The point is, the book is setting up simple circuits to light up light bulbs but it's incredibly vague, and could lead to a misunderstanding of basic circuits. It didn't teach anything about voltage or current, or that power is measured in watts and is the product of the two. In fact, the terms voltage, current, or watts are not mentioned in the text whatsoever. I don't see much point in teaching circuits if they're not even going to cover those basics, but I think it's all a bit much for 4th graders anyway.
The book taught that by first taking a working series circuit w/ a light bulb, and then by adding more light bulbs in parallel (and making no other changes), you could magically light more bulbs - thus, in their words, get more "power". But it never said what any of the values were, or that any of the components values were changed to fit modifications to the circuit path. Again, incredibly vague.
To wit: If you have a 12V battery, and a 12V bulb in series, you have a simple series circuit that works; but adding 3 more bulbs of the same type in parallel won't work (contrary to what the text taught) because now each of the four loads (bulbs) are only seeing 3 volts. Had each bulb been rated at 3 volts, then the parallel circuit would be fine but the first bulb would've blown when it was alone in the original series circuit and had the full 12V across it. You simply can't just change those things without making other compensatory adjustments, but no such changes are taught in the text - same battery, same type bulbs.
I didn't feel it was necessary to go into this kind of detail, but there you go. You could stand to lose some of your snarkiness. I did fine as a bench tech for 10 years, but that was 14 years ago too.
For some of us, but I doubt for most of us. It's not a bad idea, but I don't think it will pan out to that extent. For whatever strange reason, car ownership is so much more to a lot of people than just having personal transportation. For some, it gives a sense of security and privacy (I have my own vehicle, I'm not dependent on another, or a scheduled stop, etc); and even if there's only one passenger at a time, you're still sharing the seat, and whatever mess or smell the previous rider might have left behind... or even cold germs for that matter; and last but far from least, there's the whole silly status symbol thing of owning a fancy SUV or luxury sedan. I honestly can't see many Americans giving that up. How is it in these days with a bad economy I seem to see far more BMWs, Acuras, Audis, Lexuses, and Infinities on the road than ever before?
There are plenty of studies that show that throwing money at schools does not help. The single best thing you can do to improve most schools is to hire good teachers and fire bad ones. There is a strong *inverse* correlation between states with good education and states with strong teachers' unions. California is a prime example, as is New York (rank 34 on the list).
I'm surprised NJ scored as high as 24, what with the NJEA. They''ll never be able to let lousy teachers go and replace them with good ones unless the lousy ones want to go, which of course, they don't. I'm not opposed to the concept of unions but the problem is so many of them swing the pendulum too far the other way instead of achieving a reasonable middle ground between employer and employee.
I'd give you mod points for that but you're already maxed out.
I see the same crap in my son's school, our taxes have gone through the roof over the last 10 years, and the vast, vast, majority of that is for the local schools, only our school system is political crap; all the elementary school seems to do is teach to the ASK test, (so they can get more funding no doubt) and push little kids far too hard for their age. Equipment like smart boards don't help all that much. I've seen errors in their fancy new books, like teaching that putting a circuit in parallel instead of series increases power, which flat out violates Ohm's law, not to mention several others.
The teachers and board of education don't get it. They're stubbornly trying to ram a square peg in a round hole and thinking money is the lube that will make it work. It's not right when kids that are in 4th grade are having adult type stress symptoms, and absolutely hate and loathe going to school now, but most of my son's class' better students, including him, are experiencing just that. It's heartbreaking. Schools would have a lot more success if they made learning a little more fun and interesting, worried less about funding, but mostly if they recognized when the kids are saturated and frustrated, and stopped trying to compete with the Japanese.. whose teenagers reportedly have the highest suicide rate in the world, BTW.
I'd disagree that they're useless, that's kinda harsh.. especially if you lump cable systems in there, not sure if you are though. I agree with you that plain iron is best over all because it engages peripheral stabilizer muscles, which can prevent injury down the road. I also can't see why anyone would use a machine to do, say, curls, when there's so many free weight exercises for curls that are totally effective. OTOH, old fashioned lifting suffers from the two dimensional aspect of gravity. Dumbell flyes, for example, do not allow for full contraction at the top of the movement, there's no longer any stress on the pecs once they're upright. I advocate a mix of mostly iron, plus cable systems, and in some cases, machines, *if* that particular machine is designed well and provides an angle or benefit not found in the others. Some of the newer machines are also designed with some play in their travel to engage the stabilizers. In my case, I have degen disc disease and had two herniated discs several years back, the discs are all but completely gone and dried up now.. but the gist is, squats, no matter how strict I watch my form, don't round my back, lean forward too much, or any of that.. really aggravate my lower back, so I mostly use various leg press machines, which seem to work for me. Lately though I've been trying light squats again in the smith machine, to test things out.
I love books- new ones, old ones.. it's part nostalgia, (I actually like the musty smell of old hardcovers) and part holding it in your hand, knowing that if power goes out or a battery dies, it wont matter, the words aren't going anywhere. There's something about a library, shelves filled with books, that appeals to me. It's also nice to be able to physically flip through the pages and browse or jump ahead that way, and it's easier to hold your place at one page with your thumb and finger while cross referencing another page than it is with an Ebook, I feel like I have a little bit more "control".
The downside to real books is, the search feature is manual.
After all, geeks already put in hours of finger dancing on keyboards, assembling hefty code fragments, and juggling PHP programming functions.
What, all geeks are programmers/developers? I see this all the time, the stereotypical geek is a developer. Us lowly system and network administrators get no love!
I'll add, the gym probably isn't for everyone.. it works for me but if it really isn't your thing then at least try to find some other way to get a little exercise. I see a trend in the PC crowd that tends to divorce what is "you" from your body, and I have to highly disagree. Your emotions and intellect are actually very tied into your physical condition. And we all know how various chemicals, alkaloids, and substances can affect thinking and perception via the brain.
The hardest thing about a fitness regimen is beginning it. Especially if you're out of shape to start. Lifting heavy weights with flabby or scrawny arms kinda makes you go, "Damn this is heavy, I really don't wanna do this!", or if running, "My sides hurt and I'm tired, F this, time to fire up Skyrim!"... the real payoff doesn't happen until you're a ways down the road.. like maybe even a couple of years down the road. I admit it sucks to bust your ass week after week and not really see the big changes you wish you would at first, as it just doesn't happen overnight. However, once you get to a certain state of fitness, it's like your body thrives on it. I noticed a kind of accelerated effect in lifting, the more muscle you have to work with, the easier it is to build more muscle (up until you get to the point of diminishing returns and genetic limits of course), perhaps not unlike the way it "takes money to make money", it takes muscle to make muscle (and a shit-ton of protein). I still think the Arnold is nuts for saying the pump is better than sex, but it ain't too shabby either. It's a like ultra-proprioception.
Losing fat is harder than gaining muscle, for some. For me, not eating isn't actually "doing something", and I always feel like I need to actively do something, so it drives me nuts. (and I love my mead!) Besides, no diet, in and of itself, is likely to work long term. You need to expend more calories than you intake, and exercise is a good way to practically guarantee that. But I will end in saying, having started 3 years ago, I'm in some of the best shape in my life, considering my age (50 in 6 weeks) and it really changes your outlook and mood for the better. Last but not least, I would expect it would extend your life expectancy.
So, I'm not the only one whose first thought on reading the headline was that the research was done on folks who watched it on TV?
Nope. I can't fathom why people want to sit on their ass and watch other people throw a ball back and forth, or drive around in circles. Playing yourself is one thing, but passively watching other people do it..?
I had a membership there (BN) for a year, didn't bother to renew. It really wasn't worth the $25 to join, IMO. I don't buy many hardcovers or best sellers, which get the greatest discounts. Contrarily, I'd get a %25 to %40 off coupon every week from Borders, with free membership, for any book in the store, and use it. Maybe BN thinks being the lone surviving brick 'n' mortar store gives it extra clout but they're underestimating Amazon, IMO, who I'd rather buy from.
Nah... give it another 50 years and maybe the swastika can be reclaimed. It's already making a comeback with Asatru groups and Odinists (it was well known among the Saxons and Vikings too). Or maybe I'm being too optimistic.. Eliphas Lévi was basically the first to associate the pentagram -but upside down- with Satanism, the pentagram being another ancient symbol with an originally positive connotation, and thus stained it. Wiccans and pagans are doing their damnedest to reverse that.. we'll see how that goes.
I cut my teeth reading Charlie Brown books (I never liked calling them Peanuts, and neither did Charles Schulz).. moved to regular comic books when I was a bit older. "Peanuts" sported a pretty mature vocabulary at times, I learned a lot of words that way; I'd read a new word and ask my parents what it meant. The one caveat though- Charlie Brown can be freaking depressing! When I found myself starting to identify with him, it was time to move on.
Like a poster said early on, the comic books will probably come on their own.
I live in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, and not only will we have a good view (egress is just after sunset), the weather prospects are decent. My mylar filter is ready to go on my Takahashi, so is my Coronado PST, bought on the way to the airport to observe the 2006 eclipse in Turkey.
...laura
How do you know what the weather will be like on June 5?
Myself, I've got a 80mm refractor with a sun filter, I'm all set to view this.. unless it's clouded over.
Are things as dire as the gov't and media regularly portray them? Probably not. Such hype gives the pendulum a push towards one direction. Are there real dangers out there from terrorists and politically motivated crackers? Yes. To discount them entirely as "imaginary" is simply asinine and reeks of the conspiracy theory mindset. That is the push from other side of the swing which sets up the oscillation. And when a pendulum swings, it spends more of it's time at the extreme ends than it does in the middle, where balance, moderation, temperance, and common sense dwell. I just wish they'd leave the damn thing alone.
I share your frustration with the lunatic fringe programming of H1 and H2, but it's not all whack-a-doodle stuff. At least, not yet. "The Universe" still airs on H2, and that's pretty good. But yeah, it beats me how "aliens" are a part of history.
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Aw crap, apologies on the last post: you are absolutely right about that - the voltage remains constant across the loads in the parallel circuit but the current is split. Series splits the voltage. I'm officially now electrically dyslexic! Got it backwards. Basic circuits 101.... God that's embarrassing. No need for the link. Like I said though, I haven't done this for 14 years.. and i was trying to bang that post out quick because I'm at work.
But it was still wonky the way they were portraying the circuit; while it's conceivable the battery would have enough current for more than one bulb (it was 4, not 2), it's questionable, especially where 4 bulbs are concerned. I don't think they should be teaching electrical circuits unless they're going to teach about voltage and current, too. Without that, the real nature of electricity is vague, and the lesson could lead the kids to believe that putting things in parallel magically allows one to add any number of loads they want to a circuit. That was my chief concern. But that was just one example. Teaching to a test essentially has a basis on memorization, not understanding.
Good luck on the new job, BTW.
I've seen errors in their fancy new books, like teaching that putting a circuit in parallel instead of series increases power, which flat out violates Ohm's law, not to mention several others.
Uh, if you are building a circuit with two resistors and a battery, putting the resistors in parallel does increase the total power dissipated on the circuit. The total effective resistance is less, therefore the current drawn from the battery is higher, and since the battery's voltage will stay relatively constant, more total power is dissipated. This all follows from Ohm's law.
Perhaps you misspoke; your language certainly lacks the precision of someone who has actually worked with circuits.
And you certainly sound like a physicist who overthinks basic electronic circuits from a children's textbook perspective. The point is, the book is setting up simple circuits to light up light bulbs but it's incredibly vague, and could lead to a misunderstanding of basic circuits. It didn't teach anything about voltage or current, or that power is measured in watts and is the product of the two. In fact, the terms voltage, current, or watts are not mentioned in the text whatsoever. I don't see much point in teaching circuits if they're not even going to cover those basics, but I think it's all a bit much for 4th graders anyway.
The book taught that by first taking a working series circuit w/ a light bulb, and then by adding more light bulbs in parallel (and making no other changes), you could magically light more bulbs - thus, in their words, get more "power". But it never said what any of the values were, or that any of the components values were changed to fit modifications to the circuit path. Again, incredibly vague.
To wit: If you have a 12V battery, and a 12V bulb in series, you have a simple series circuit that works; but adding 3 more bulbs of the same type in parallel won't work (contrary to what the text taught) because now each of the four loads (bulbs) are only seeing 3 volts. Had each bulb been rated at 3 volts, then the parallel circuit would be fine but the first bulb would've blown when it was alone in the original series circuit and had the full 12V across it. You simply can't just change those things without making other compensatory adjustments, but no such changes are taught in the text - same battery, same type bulbs.
I didn't feel it was necessary to go into this kind of detail, but there you go. You could stand to lose some of your snarkiness. I did fine as a bench tech for 10 years, but that was 14 years ago too.
For some of us, but I doubt for most of us. It's not a bad idea, but I don't think it will pan out to that extent. For whatever strange reason, car ownership is so much more to a lot of people than just having personal transportation. For some, it gives a sense of security and privacy (I have my own vehicle, I'm not dependent on another, or a scheduled stop, etc); and even if there's only one passenger at a time, you're still sharing the seat, and whatever mess or smell the previous rider might have left behind... or even cold germs for that matter; and last but far from least, there's the whole silly status symbol thing of owning a fancy SUV or luxury sedan. I honestly can't see many Americans giving that up. How is it in these days with a bad economy I seem to see far more BMWs, Acuras, Audis, Lexuses, and Infinities on the road than ever before?
There are plenty of studies that show that throwing money at schools does not help. The single best thing you can do to improve most schools is to hire good teachers and fire bad ones. There is a strong *inverse* correlation between states with good education and states with strong teachers' unions. California is a prime example, as is New York (rank 34 on the list).
I'm surprised NJ scored as high as 24, what with the NJEA. They''ll never be able to let lousy teachers go and replace them with good ones unless the lousy ones want to go, which of course, they don't. I'm not opposed to the concept of unions but the problem is so many of them swing the pendulum too far the other way instead of achieving a reasonable middle ground between employer and employee.
Only if you're biased to the left, then from that perspective the scale looks tilted.
I'd give you mod points for that but you're already maxed out.
I see the same crap in my son's school, our taxes have gone through the roof over the last 10 years, and the vast, vast, majority of that is for the local schools, only our school system is political crap; all the elementary school seems to do is teach to the ASK test, (so they can get more funding no doubt) and push little kids far too hard for their age. Equipment like smart boards don't help all that much. I've seen errors in their fancy new books, like teaching that putting a circuit in parallel instead of series increases power, which flat out violates Ohm's law, not to mention several others.
The teachers and board of education don't get it. They're stubbornly trying to ram a square peg in a round hole and thinking money is the lube that will make it work. It's not right when kids that are in 4th grade are having adult type stress symptoms, and absolutely hate and loathe going to school now, but most of my son's class' better students, including him, are experiencing just that. It's heartbreaking. Schools would have a lot more success if they made learning a little more fun and interesting, worried less about funding, but mostly if they recognized when the kids are saturated and frustrated, and stopped trying to compete with the Japanese.. whose teenagers reportedly have the highest suicide rate in the world, BTW.
Elevators also have speed controls, and cannot go faster than a certain designed-in speed because of mechanical reasons, not CPU controlled ones.
Aw crap, there goes my idea for a poor man's space elevator.
It's actually quite telling that Disney thinks this would be a good example of how to train a child.
Makes you wonder what horrific pavlonion subliminal messages are in the films they make...
http://quicklol.com/disney-subliminal-messages-collection/
Are any of the Russians going to blame US radar for this one too?
I'd disagree that they're useless, that's kinda harsh.. especially if you lump cable systems in there, not sure if you are though. I agree with you that plain iron is best over all because it engages peripheral stabilizer muscles, which can prevent injury down the road. I also can't see why anyone would use a machine to do, say, curls, when there's so many free weight exercises for curls that are totally effective. OTOH, old fashioned lifting suffers from the two dimensional aspect of gravity. Dumbell flyes, for example, do not allow for full contraction at the top of the movement, there's no longer any stress on the pecs once they're upright. I advocate a mix of mostly iron, plus cable systems, and in some cases, machines, *if* that particular machine is designed well and provides an angle or benefit not found in the others. Some of the newer machines are also designed with some play in their travel to engage the stabilizers. In my case, I have degen disc disease and had two herniated discs several years back, the discs are all but completely gone and dried up now.. but the gist is, squats, no matter how strict I watch my form, don't round my back, lean forward too much, or any of that.. really aggravate my lower back, so I mostly use various leg press machines, which seem to work for me. Lately though I've been trying light squats again in the smith machine, to test things out.
I love books- new ones, old ones.. it's part nostalgia, (I actually like the musty smell of old hardcovers) and part holding it in your hand, knowing that if power goes out or a battery dies, it wont matter, the words aren't going anywhere. There's something about a library, shelves filled with books, that appeals to me. It's also nice to be able to physically flip through the pages and browse or jump ahead that way, and it's easier to hold your place at one page with your thumb and finger while cross referencing another page than it is with an Ebook, I feel like I have a little bit more "control".
The downside to real books is, the search feature is manual.
What, all geeks are programmers/developers? I see this all the time, the stereotypical geek is a developer. Us lowly system and network administrators get no love!
I'll add, the gym probably isn't for everyone.. it works for me but if it really isn't your thing then at least try to find some other way to get a little exercise. I see a trend in the PC crowd that tends to divorce what is "you" from your body, and I have to highly disagree. Your emotions and intellect are actually very tied into your physical condition. And we all know how various chemicals, alkaloids, and substances can affect thinking and perception via the brain.
The hardest thing about a fitness regimen is beginning it. Especially if you're out of shape to start. Lifting heavy weights with flabby or scrawny arms kinda makes you go, "Damn this is heavy, I really don't wanna do this!", or if running, "My sides hurt and I'm tired, F this, time to fire up Skyrim!"... the real payoff doesn't happen until you're a ways down the road.. like maybe even a couple of years down the road. I admit it sucks to bust your ass week after week and not really see the big changes you wish you would at first, as it just doesn't happen overnight. However, once you get to a certain state of fitness, it's like your body thrives on it. I noticed a kind of accelerated effect in lifting, the more muscle you have to work with, the easier it is to build more muscle (up until you get to the point of diminishing returns and genetic limits of course), perhaps not unlike the way it "takes money to make money", it takes muscle to make muscle (and a shit-ton of protein). I still think the Arnold is nuts for saying the pump is better than sex, but it ain't too shabby either. It's a like ultra-proprioception.
Losing fat is harder than gaining muscle, for some. For me, not eating isn't actually "doing something", and I always feel like I need to actively do something, so it drives me nuts. (and I love my mead!) Besides, no diet, in and of itself, is likely to work long term. You need to expend more calories than you intake, and exercise is a good way to practically guarantee that. But I will end in saying, having started 3 years ago, I'm in some of the best shape in my life, considering my age (50 in 6 weeks) and it really changes your outlook and mood for the better. Last but not least, I would expect it would extend your life expectancy.
Extra points awarded for talking like Yoda, but you forgot the "...hmmmm?"
So, I'm not the only one whose first thought on reading the headline was that the research was done on folks who watched it on TV?
Nope. I can't fathom why people want to sit on their ass and watch other people throw a ball back and forth, or drive around in circles. Playing yourself is one thing, but passively watching other people do it..?
I had a membership there (BN) for a year, didn't bother to renew. It really wasn't worth the $25 to join, IMO. I don't buy many hardcovers or best sellers, which get the greatest discounts. Contrarily, I'd get a %25 to %40 off coupon every week from Borders, with free membership, for any book in the store, and use it. Maybe BN thinks being the lone surviving brick 'n' mortar store gives it extra clout but they're underestimating Amazon, IMO, who I'd rather buy from.
I wonder if Borders would've done this. I miss Borders .. *sniff* ..my local BN kinda sucks for a BN.
Nah... give it another 50 years and maybe the swastika can be reclaimed. It's already making a comeback with Asatru groups and Odinists (it was well known among the Saxons and Vikings too). Or maybe I'm being too optimistic.. Eliphas Lévi was basically the first to associate the pentagram -but upside down- with Satanism, the pentagram being another ancient symbol with an originally positive connotation, and thus stained it. Wiccans and pagans are doing their damnedest to reverse that.. we'll see how that goes.
I cut my teeth reading Charlie Brown books (I never liked calling them Peanuts, and neither did Charles Schulz).. moved to regular comic books when I was a bit older. "Peanuts" sported a pretty mature vocabulary at times, I learned a lot of words that way; I'd read a new word and ask my parents what it meant. The one caveat though- Charlie Brown can be freaking depressing! When I found myself starting to identify with him, it was time to move on.
Like a poster said early on, the comic books will probably come on their own.
I live in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, and not only will we have a good view (egress is just after sunset), the weather prospects are decent. My mylar filter is ready to go on my Takahashi, so is my Coronado PST, bought on the way to the airport to observe the 2006 eclipse in Turkey.
...laura
How do you know what the weather will be like on June 5?
Myself, I've got a 80mm refractor with a sun filter, I'm all set to view this.. unless it's clouded over.
I think you've got "Profit" listed about 8 steps late on that list. Everyone knows that profit comes first in the political world order.
FTFY
Are things as dire as the gov't and media regularly portray them? Probably not. Such hype gives the pendulum a push towards one direction. Are there real dangers out there from terrorists and politically motivated crackers? Yes. To discount them entirely as "imaginary" is simply asinine and reeks of the conspiracy theory mindset. That is the push from other side of the swing which sets up the oscillation. And when a pendulum swings, it spends more of it's time at the extreme ends than it does in the middle, where balance, moderation, temperance, and common sense dwell. I just wish they'd leave the damn thing alone.
You speak geekdom blasphemy! Fresh air, sun, exercise? Are you insane?
The cake is a lie!
I share your frustration with the lunatic fringe programming of H1 and H2, but it's not all whack-a-doodle stuff. At least, not yet. "The Universe" still airs on H2, and that's pretty good. But yeah, it beats me how "aliens" are a part of history.
You got it all wrong. It's Norwegian. This thing is obviously Yggdrasil ..but who'd a thunk it'd be so small?