SAE TIDBITS
SAE INTERNATIONAL, what used to be called the Society of Automotive Engineers, continues to be the premier assemblage of the world’s engineers devoted to transportation. Years ago, 1976 – 1978, … Continue reading
ON UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
WHAT DOES the U.S. have in common with Liberia and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (aka Burma)? These are the only three countries in the world that continue … Continue reading
STILL OFF-SCALE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
AUTOMOTIVE ENTHUSIASTS of a certain age (and retentive memory) still celebrate the Tapley Meter. This British piece of instrumentation thrilled us no end when it measured that a car’s performance … Continue reading
HAPTICS—A TOUCHING TOPIC
ROBOTS DO a great many things better than their human counterparts, but they have yet to achieve our sense of touch. “Brainy, Yes, but Far From Handy,” by John Markoff, … Continue reading
NETWORKING ALONG KÖNIGSBERG’S SEVEN BRIDGES
“THE SEVEN Bridges of Königsberg” sounds like a romantic novel set elsewhere than Iowa. In fact, though, it’s a classic problem of mathematics, one that led to modern mathematics’ graph theory, … Continue reading
COMMON CORE MATH
LET’S begin paradoxically with a summary: Old Math is rote memory and recitation of facts. New Math is rigor describing what numbers are. Common Core Math is intuition describing what … Continue reading
SCIENCE TIDBITS
CHERRY-PICKING SCIENCE can lead to deception. That is, sharing an interesting tidbit that stresses a single aspect of a complex matter obviously does not tell the full story. But it … Continue reading
POWER QUANTS
IT’S QUITE enough to give mathematics a bad name. “Traders Profit as Power Grid is Overworked,” in The New York Times, August 14, 2014, explains how “quants” (those mathematically trained … Continue reading
ELECTRICALLY FORCED INDUCTION
FORCING MORE air and fuel into the combustion process enhances power on demand, a great idea in these days of downsized engines for better mpg. Hitherto, forced induction has been … Continue reading
PONO SOUND
THE WORD “pono” is Hawaiian for “righteous,” and a fellow graduate of Worcester Polytech has teamed with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young to return righteous fidelity to … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 