Dear 1Chance.

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Check out the Katy/MKT Trail that goes all across the state of Missouri. You would really enjoy it as it is very beautiful and well maintained. I live within 5 miles of an access point. If you're ever out this way, consider yourself invited for a visit.
I was going to mention that but for some reason I thought you were from FLA but that is where you had Beenthere's send off. I did not think to look at your location. :)

Yes the KATY is on my bucket list. I'm going to Maine this year. Maybe the KATY next year or even this fall??

You should consider joining warmshowers.

http://www.warmshowers.org/

Not sure how you feel about hosting strangers but everyone I have meet has been very nice. I have hosted people from all over the world. Last year I hosted a couple from Germany that were at the end of their round the world tour. I also hosted a young man from Korea. He started in San Francisco, down the Pacific Coast Hwy, across the U.S., he was headed to DC after he left me. He was VERY happy to learn of the GAP. He was then headed up to Canada, back across Canada then back down to San Francisco

I have stayed with a number of people too. Last host was a family in Italy. That was a lot of fun. We knew they had boys so we brought them an American football. They had never seen one up close. We taught them to throw. Lots of fun.



Mom had the best arm.
 

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t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
So you ride right past my house and NEVER stop by?
Not even for a cocktail or two???
I am heart broken......
I will crawl back into my cave....alas old friend....alas...
I may pop by. If you open one of your bottles of "Serego Alighieri Vaio Armaron" I know you have a case of it tucked away. I can bring some fresh sea food. Do you like snails?
 

1chance

Joined Nov 26, 2011
46
I am not going to be angry for this is my thread and still I did not have an answer for what I like to know.

I am still keeping my cool, and I am gonna let you guys have fun in my thread while I wait for the answer.

Are u a math Wiz, Ms 1Chance ?
I teach college math courses (college algebra, calculus I, trigonometry, and statistics) to bright high school students in a high school. They receive college credit for their endeavors. I consider them wizes. I enjoy math challenges and have always found math easy to understand and do. I have been doing this for 26 years. Do I qualify as a "wiz" in your opinion?
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
I teach college math courses (college algebra, calculus I, trigonometry, and statistics) to bright high school students in a high school. They receive college credit for their endeavors. I consider them wizes. I enjoy math challenges and have always found math easy to understand and do. I have been doing this for 26 years. Do I qualify as a "wiz" in your opinion?
Calculus I had to have been one of my favorite classes. Then again, I took it in my senior year of high school, but then when I went to college they dropped me back to Algebra 2/Trigonometry. I guess it was the default class for my major. So I had to retake calculus in college, and it turned out that my school's Calculus I and Calculus II were both covered in my high school class. So needless to say, I was ahead for a couple years :D Still enjoyable though. I've always loved doing math, and with my hobby/career, it has come in very handy.
 

1chance

Joined Nov 26, 2011
46
You should consider joining warmshowers.

http://www.warmshowers.org/

Not sure how you feel about hosting strangers but everyone I have meet has been very nice. I have hosted people from all over the world.


.
Thanks for the info. This sounds very interesting! We hosted a high school exchange student one year from Belgium (who stayed with us for 5 years and went to college here,too :eek:) and then all his relatives visited with us over the years as well. I would definitely be open to something like this and would like to use it as I travel abroad, too. Like you, I have never met a stranger.:D
 

Thread Starter

R!f@@

Joined Apr 2, 2009
9,918
I teach college math courses (college algebra, calculus I, trigonometry, and statistics) to bright high school students in a high school. They receive college credit for their endeavors. I consider them wizes. I enjoy math challenges and have always found math easy to understand and do. I have been doing this for 26 years. Do I qualify as a "wiz" in your opinion?
Now I know where to post my math problems in the future.


By the way u all loosewire characters, I got a B+ in Math from London Exam.....HA ! .Beat that if u can.
 

debe

Joined Sep 21, 2010
1,389
Unfortunately for me Maths was not good, consequenly i could not get into an electronics career. So instead just repaired electronic equipment instead. Coming from a small country town you need to be able to repair just about any thing (bit like R!f@@)
 

1chance

Joined Nov 26, 2011
46
Unfortunately for me Maths was not good, consequenly i could not get into an electronics career. So instead just repaired electronic equipment instead. Coming from a small country town you need to be able to repair just about any thing (bit like R!f@@)
Hey, don't sell yourself short. Given your location, I bet you're more important than you realize. I worry that I don't include enough practical applications in my teaching. I am pleased, though, that nearly 50% of my students go into engineering or another science or math based field. Guess I run a nerd factory!:D
 

steveb

Joined Jul 3, 2008
2,436
Unfortunately for me Maths was not good, consequenly i could not get into an electronics career.
I agree with 1chance. Don't sell yourself short. I say this for two reasons.

First, people who are mechanically inclined, like technicians and other troubleshooters, have natural intuition that works well with many aspects of math. Usually, the issue is the way the material is presented. It is possible to explore math much the same way that you would explore the working of a machine, to figure out how it works. Most text books and class room settings don't take this approach.

Second, there are many examples of people doing very significant electrical design and research without relying on higher level math. My favorite example (which I've mentioned several times in this forum) is Michael Faraday, one of the major founders of the principles of electromagnetics. He discovered many important electrical effects, several of which are named after him. Discovery of any one of these effects would have made him famous, but I challenge you to try and figure out just how many discoveries he actually made!

The thing about Faraday is that he was very much against using math to make discoveries. He believed that intuition and experimentation were more powerful and more trustworthy. Although I don't at all agree with his poor opinion of math as a useful tool of discovery, and although he eventually saw the power of math later in his life, all of the great things he did in his prime did not rely on higher level mathematics. It was other people (notably Maxwell) who put his work into a mathematical context.

Some info on Faraday can be found here.

http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/projects/bluetelephone/html/faraday.html

Note the following quote which tells you why we talk about lines of force when talking about electricity and magnetism.

" Faraday did not have a background in sophisticated mathematics and as a result of this did not articulate his discovery through a complex equation. He instead describes his discovery to us as a visual image of "Lines of force" which create "an Electro magnetic field" or "fields of gravity". If electricity could generate magnetism, thenmagnetism ought to be able to generate electricity". (Michael Faraday 1821)"
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,712
I would have liked to live during Faraday's time. I think that experimenting with electricity and magnetism must have been one of the most exciting and rewarding times in physics.

Not to belittle anyone's performance at math, when I did my A-Level Math exam, I finished it, went over my answers and left the exam room in half the allotted time.

Mathematics is the language of physics, most of science and engineering and computer science. Excel in math and opportunities abound.
 

steveb

Joined Jul 3, 2008
2,436
Mathematics is the language of physics, most of science and engineering and computer science. Excel in math and opportunities abound.
I agree. In today's world, at least a moderate working of knowledge of the mathematics used in physics and engineering is needed to work in these fields. And, the more you know, the better you can do.

Unfortunately, too many people sell themselves short and think they can't attain the critical knowledge to achieve their goals and dreams. I feel anyone who has mechanical ability has the intuition to understand engineering and science mathematics.

As an example, I have a good friend who is a mechanical engineer. We are both 47 now. We met in high school and we were both in an electronics class that the school offered. He was into the practical aspects of mechanics and electronics back then. He impressed me so much with what he could do. He would build hovercrafts and robots and make amazing science fair projects. Math was not his strong suit and he was not able to go directly to university level engineering despite his strong desire to do so. He just struggled with the way math was presented in classroom settings. However, he spent 2 years at community college and honed his math skills. Eventually, he was able to use his mechanical intuition to understand the key concepts of calculus. Aside from his strong will and perseverance, finding good teachers that regularly teach people who don't find math easy was critical to his success. With this foundation he obtained a university level bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. Note that this field includes some moderately high level math, including vector calculus in fluid mechanics, which is no easy subject.

The way I look at it is that if people, like Faraday and my friend, were able to do so much without using formal math (i'm convinced they actually used mathematical intuition internally without realizing it), imagine how much more they can do with formal mathematical tools as a key language and portal of discovery.
 
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debe

Joined Sep 21, 2010
1,389
I must say about 28 yrs ago I did a TV Servicing course at a TAFE college in the City. I was most fortunate to have an old teacher who new how to get across to a student what he was explaining. If you then didnt understand he would aproach it from a different angle untill he new you got it. I consider it a privelage to have had him as a teacher. Good teachers are Valuable. 1chance you must be doing something right with that sort of percentage.
 

1chance

Joined Nov 26, 2011
46
I must say about 28 yrs ago I did a TV Servicing course at a TAFE college in the City. I was most fortunate to have an old teacher who new how to get across to a student what he was explaining. If you then didnt understand he would aproach it from a different angle untill he new you got it. I consider it a privelage to have had him as a teacher. Good teachers are Valuable. 1chance you must be doing something right with that sort of percentage.
I think my greatest skills are not my own knowledge base but how I break concepts down into pieces that the students are already familiar/comfortable with. I try to make every student believe that he/she is the smartest one and encourage them to shoot for the moon! I am quite proud of two of my recent girls who are finishing masters in mechanical engineering. One has plans to use her skills doing practical mission work in third world countries. I judge my success by my students' accomplishments.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
I would have liked to live during Faraday's time. I think that experimenting with electricity and magnetism must have been one of the most exciting and rewarding times in physics.
No way. Right now is very exciting. In those days very few were lucky enough to posses the education to have the ability to be preform any kind of experimentation.

Now almost anyone can dabble in whatever interests them. An educated population really helps but the internet has been a godsend for sharing information.

In Faraday's day most of us would probably be toiling in a field somewhere and we wouldn't have time for such nonsense as experimentation.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
I think my greatest skills are not my own knowledge base but how I break concepts down into pieces that the students are already familiar/comfortable with. I try to make every student believe that he/she is the smartest one and encourage them to shoot for the moon! I am quite proud of two of my recent girls who are finishing masters in mechanical engineering. One has plans to use her skills doing practical mission work in third world countries. I judge my success by my students' accomplishments.
I wish I had you as a teacher in high school I was horrible at math. I am still horrible at it. Every time that I have tried to finish my college degree I have always had to start from the beginning at Algebra when it came to the subject of math. Nothing seemed to ever stick.
 
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