| Author |
Message |
    
Rkc00
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 10:10 pm: | 
|
How about Se to the x = Fu to the n |
Jlnance
| | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 11:06 am: |
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Ok, this seems an appropriate place to post this. I can't claim credit for this. It was allegedly concieved while drinking beer at NCSU.
Anyway, lets say we have 2 ladders, one 10 feet long and one 15 feet long. We take the ladders into an alley. The base of the 10' ladder is placed at the right edge of the alley and leaned against the left wall. The base of the 15' ladder is placed at the left edge of the alley and leaned against the right wall. The ladders cross 5' above the ground. How wide is the alley?
Whats fun about this problem is not that it's hard. Its that I can tell you its hard and every Engineer will whip out a piece of paper, absolutly convinced that they can solve it, despite me telling them it's hard.
It's easy to get a numerical solution to this problem. But I bet you can't find a closed form solution.  |
Dr_greg
| | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 11:40 am: |
|
You're right, it does look easy...a little trig and the answer should pop right out. I'll take a look at it today and let you know. |
Jlnance
| | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 12:41 pm: |
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You're right, it does look easy...a little trig and the answer should pop right out.
And so it starts |
Bigdaddy
| | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 01:59 pm: |
|
Uh, Jim, no answer is popping out for me.
I'm calling it Hilbert's 17th and unsolved.
G2 |
Dr_greg
| | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 05:19 pm: |
|
Hmm, yes, the closed-form solution IS elusive.
No matter, drag out the ol' computer:
alley width = 6.1559 ft
angle of 10' ladder = 0.9077 (52.0050 degrees)
angle of 15' ladder = 1.1479 (65.7703 degrees)
(done using nonlinear optimization) |
Jlnance
| | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 05:29 pm: |
|
Hmm, yes, the closed-form solution IS elusive.
 |
Bigdaddy
| | Posted on Monday, November 13, 2006 - 05:50 pm: |
|
> [Jim, That's a hardware issue. Sorry, can't help you, but I have generated a trouble ticket. :-)
G2
] |
Jlnance
| | Posted on Monday, November 13, 2006 - 06:13 pm: |
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It took you 11 months to generate my trouble ticket?  |
Bigdaddy
| | Posted on Monday, November 13, 2006 - 06:18 pm: |
|
Strange indeed. That's from an attempted post using email -- shows my IP as coming from internal source. So, I'd guess SMTP burped out some stored email responses.
I'm slow, real slow, but 11 months would be in violation of my very, very, very liberal SLA 
G2 |
Jlnance
| | Posted on Monday, November 13, 2006 - 06:39 pm: |
|
Apparently your internal source is going nuts :-) |
Jackbequick
| | Posted on Monday, November 13, 2006 - 09:26 pm: |
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Hey Greg!
You can say that again!
Jack |
Bigdaddy
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - 06:59 am: |
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Jim, Your close
Jack,
No one listens to me and I feel like I'm talking to a hammer so I repeat myself
It's all better now,
G2 |
|
