Re: Wireless Power Nearly There

John Larkin wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

But in addition, take the paractical aspects, and do educate kids regarding those - offering real-life examples. Certain mathematical pronciples are, for example, applicable to the arts; and if a student's abilites are mroe in the arts areas, then relatign math to those areas can only enhance that student's understanding of math.

I sure as heck wish that's how it was taught when I was a student - I had to either learn a lot on my own via reading, or go back when older and "re- learn" a lot of things, because subjects in general in my JHS and HS were presented in such an abyssmally piss-poor manner.

Without a doubt he was pretty good at it, but I'm not sure he appreciated loss as well as he ought've. It's well known that a resonant system will not "accumulate energy" and allow voltage to increase without bound; it reaches an equilibrium. (What's more, a perfect resonator can never store any resonant energy, because its bandwidth is infinnitessimal / the age of the universe is finite.) His worldwide, wireless power distribution system (ah, coming back on topic) is impossible because the coupling doesn't work out right.

Tim

Careful there! If we successfully taught everyone to carefully think everything through, there wouldn't be anyone left to be Democrats or worshippers of AGW, etc ;-)

...Jim Thompson

"Joel Koltner" wrote in news:f0Xsk.50956$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-08.dc.easynews.com:

It's diffficult to grasp how bad (disadvantaged, violent, etc.) some places are, if you've never lived in them or been exposed to them.

Typos aside (newsgroups are notorious for them, I think because poeple are typing very quickly during brief gaps in other activities), I've noticed a real degeneration of both grammatical skills, and pronounciation, in various media. I can't imagine Walter Cronkite every saying, even after a few drinks, "these ones", but I've heard it said by newscasters rather often. Meanwhile, the proper useage of apostrophes and commas seems to have become tantamount to the Black Arts - something to be avoided, even feared. The ability to function is predicated upon being able to both understand others, and make oneself understood. So the problem with not learning grammar, spelling, ad vocabulary is not merely one of mechanics - it goes to the root of meanings: writing/saying what is meant, so that others can understand what is meant. An individual, a group, or even a society can't function if understanding is comprimised.

When self-expression becomes nothing more than a collection of sounds, or a collection of letters, then of course you end up with people saying that "nobody understands them". I've known poeple who would whine on about being "not understood", yet would absolutely refuse to accept the fact that certain words have certain meanings, insisting that "words mean what they want them to mean". Although it's occasionally amusing to philosphically debate the nature or reality, the fact reamains that there is an objective reality within which the world functions, and when poeple choose to ignore it because it doesn't sufficiently massage their "egos", the rest of us usually end up supporting the non-functioning twits...

Learning spelling and grammar isn't a question of "ego", it's a question of communication. There are far too many things that are not taught rigorously because some "theorist" came up with the notion that any form of discipline, all correction, supposedly "thwarts creativity", when in fact, the expression of creativity *requires* discipline - the guitarist whose ego is bruised by learning chords will never produce anything but noise; the artist who considers learning how to use a pencil or brush, or mever learns how to give shape to clay, and so on, will produce nothing but a meaningless jumble.

IMO, sad, even pathetic...

Agreed, for "casual" forums like this typos don't bother me -- I certainly make plenty myself. :-)

What bugs me about the incorrect usage of apostrophes is that I can't imagine people don't "know that they don't know" how to use them, and yet they chose to add them anyway. Somehow to me that's worse than knowing you don't know when/where to use them and hence just omitting them if you're uncertain... I guess because the former seem to be "errors of arrogance" whereas the later are "errors of ignorance," and arrogance is typically worse than ignorance.

I believe that was Humpty Dumpty? :-)

Yes, absolutely -- successfully "breaking the rules" requires a very good understanding of them in the first place.

The kid who gets an "A" in a course has far more right to complain about how poor the teacher is than the kid who gets a "D."

I don't like the looks of "PDFs"... I prefer "PDF's".

And I don't care whether you like it or not ;-)

I suspect that the "apostrophe police" vote Democrat ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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I'm sure you know that Tesla in addition to being a technical genius was also very much "showbiz" as well. A couple of key examples are his famous photo of him sitting on a chair "reading" while million volt sparks fly around him. These are the kind of photos I used to do in high school! Simple double exposures! Tesla in explaining the photo to a reporter later remarked, "I'm not that crazy!" Another is the "world power system" including the famous tower at Wardenclyffe. Virtually everyone even now believes the press releases that this was supposed to be some kind of "wireless power distribution system". Even you. But if you were to look up the court testimony related to the disposal of the property and contents, you'll find Tesla himself testifying under oath in court that the purpose of the system was trans-Atlantic communications! In other words a RADIO station! And that makes perfect sense! Such a device in that period would have been an amazingly profitable venture as were the undersea cables and Marconi setups. And this is especially true given Tesla's testimony of the RF power levels he intended to generate. Makes one wonder what caused Morgan to cut funding.

So the bottom line is that really one can prognosticate as you are doing as to whether the earth-sky resonator does or does not have sufficient losses to kill the world power idea, but it seems that only Tesla himself has actually measured those losses. And he DID transmit large amounts of power over a considerable distance. But that's all we know. Taking Tesla's "showbiz" in the press for scientific accuracy would be a big mistake in my opinion. Given the conductivity of the earth my personal feeling is that this power distribution scheme is going to have some severe limitations, but without real data who can say for sure?

But none of this, either scientific mistakes due to the level of knowledge at the time or Tesla's showbiz grandstanding is proof that he was "ignorant of basic physics". In fact all his patents and inventions say exactly the opposite.

When the second line boss was out, we filled his office with boxes of paper, since we had just received a large delivery!

-- Charlie Edmondson Edmondson Engineering Inc

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

We'll make an exception for you, Jim. :-)

Besides, I'm sure you know the how apostrophes are *supposed* to be used when it comes to possessives vs. plurals, whereas "PDFs" vs "PDF's" falls into the area of "use of apostrophes to clarify certain plusals" where the "rules" are far less universal/agreed upon.

But I bet you don't write, "The PDF's' fonts looked like crap," do you!?

Ironically, the dems like to talk up education and how everyone needs a PhD in astrophysics in order to be a fully-functioning memeber of society, but on the flip side they want the exam to be little more than, "Those shiny things you see up in the sky at night -- what are they called?"

---Joel

I'd write, "The PDF fonts..."

Yep. They want their constituents to be ignorant and in need :-(

...Jim Thompson

"Joel Koltner" wrote in news:JGitk.51930$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-07.dc.easynews.com:

That's a good way to put it - clever phrasing ;) , plus I do think it hits the proverbial nail on the head.

Heh, the wisdom of children's books... (Isn't that related to "the Zen of Pooh"...? ;) )

Yup. Going back to teh context of the arts, tehre are certain of the neolithic cave paintings that are astounding, not becasue of their precise realism, but becasue they sylization is deon in a way that shows an intimate familiarity with, a close first-hand observation of, the various animals. FWIW (or FWLIW), I've heard it said in some art circles that it's harder, requires more skill, to make a stylized animal (or other subject) that is instantly recognizable, than it takes to draw a realistic rendition, because it's more difficult to know what to edit out, and what to retain as being essential.

Well, I'm not sure I can agree with that - I got a "D" in 2nd semester calculus, but not becasue the instructor was bad; the fact that I passed at all (since it was, and remains, my major weakness) is something of a testament to the instructor's abilities, including the ability to inspire me to put a lot of effort into trying. IOW, I increasingly think that the true test of an educator is gettign through to the students who *don't* have much of an ability in the given topic. But to do that, the educator has to first knwo the topic thoproughly, and tehn also look to his or her own weakest areas so as to empathize with the student who is struggling.

IMO, if students are being graduated from high-school without even knowing the bare basics of grammar and vocabulary, that lack of knowledge is less an indicator of student stupidity and more an indicator of substandard teaching.

"Joel Koltner" wrote in news:Qujtk.56731$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-06.dc.easynews.com:

Actually, the rules for plurals are agreed upon. A good synopsis:

That's different from people habitually ignoring the rules. Or being pressured to ignore the rules ;)

I have a good friend who teaches in elementary school, and her biggest gripe is that the current testing system does nothing for eh children's *learning*

- all they do is memorize stuff for the test, and then forget it, whereas what my friend used to be able to do was connect learning to their lives - now there is no time for that.

The current levels of illiteracy and innumeracy are not inevitable.

Well, Tesla was a little bizarre, at least in his later years. He's a natural leader for the insane.

Right. The knowledge gained by "word problems" (not the M$ type) are quite valuable in the real world.

Did she? I've told people the same sort of thing but they're still scared of "math".

Many don't. Manufacturers know that. Why else would the "Giant Economy Size" cost 50% more than the small package?

Get them over the fear of math, as well.

Compound interest, time-valued money, savings, 401K, simple economics...

Isn't there a problem dropping large branches on you noggin? I'm unlikely to need such a widget. I don't have any trees[*] tall enough to need a ladder to reach the top, much less a pole saw.

Only if you stand under them ;-)

I have a Chilean Mesquite out front that grows like a weed... have to trim it every few weeks during the summer.

...Jim Thompson

How high can it go? I need about 30 ft..

Only 8'. But that, plus a 12' step ladder, lets me reach everything without endangering myself ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Well, when raising a pole above one's head...

Remind me to never have one of them. I rather liked the Sugar Maple I had in VT (about the only thing I liked about VT).