[rescue] Cooling (Long Message, sorry)

[Dave McGuire]

On April 17, Jochen Kunz wrote:
> The same for me. I don't like maths much. The problem comes when you
> have to work on xx resistor values that depend on each other...
> Sometimes I was tweaking a circuit for an hour, gave up, thought about
> it, used some math and it worked 20 minutes later. 

  Well, don't get me wrong...for simple stuff involving, e.g., Ohm's
law, or the resonant frequency of an LC tank circuit, I whip out the
calculator first.  But for anything more complex, doing heavy math
seems to be what college professors like to do to impress each other.

> Not to talk about nice things that can be done with e.g. Matlab... 

  Yeah, if only I had a copy...

> >   The tendency to reduce all things electronic to overcomplicated
> > mathematics is irritating at best and counterproductive at worst. 
> But it is nice to apply overcomplicated mathematics to generate some
> input for e.g. a Cray. ;-)

  Oh yes, I would *love* that...but my brain seems to lack the
capacity to understand any math beyond simple algebra.

> > > ??? You don't learn basic trigonometry at scool?
> >   No, as a matter of fact, I didn't. [...]
> Holy Daemon. Now I know why the US school system is called rotten. 

  Yes, it sucks...but they did indeed teach trigonometry in my high
school...I just ignored it because I didn't consider it useful at the
time.  And now, at least 99% of the time, I still don't.

> Ohh, yes. I have that "You didn't know that? Shame on you!" attitude, as
> it makes me feel superior. ;-)

  Uh-huh.  I'll forgive you for that if you forgive me for being
defensive.  I've always been self-conscious about my inability to
comprehend mathematics, and i guess I always will be.

        -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire                                 "Mmmm.  Big."
St. Petersburg, FL                                -Den